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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




General Barillas, President of Guatemala. 



IN AND OUT OF 
CENTRAL AMEBICA 



AND OTHER SKETCHES 
AND STUDIES OF TRAVEL 



B^/ 



FRANK VINCENT 



AUTHOR OF 

'around and about south AMERICA,'' "THROUGH AND THROUGH THE TROPICS " 

" NORSK, LAPP, AND FINN," ETC. 



WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 




c 
NEW YORK 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
1890 



.V77 



Copyright, 1890, 

bt d. appleton and company. 



^/ 



l» 



i 

i 

■ 4 



TO 
THE HONORABLE 

JOHN A. HALDERMAN, 

DIPLOMATIST, STATESMAN, 
JURIST, SOLDIER. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

I. — In and out of Central America 1 

Introductory 1 

1. Costa Rica 11 

2. Nicaragua 42 

3. Honduras 67 

4. Salvador 89 

5. Guatemala 110 

II. — A Rival to Solomon's Temple 146 

III. — Quarantined in the Antilles . . . . . .182 

IV. — An Oriental Monster . 202 

V. — The Exiled Emperor 213 

VI.— White Elephants . . 226 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 



'/General Barillas, President of Guatemala . . . Frontispiece. 
VA Moth Eleven Inches from Tip to Tip of Wing . . . .11 

^The Breadfruit Tree 25 

/a Costa Rican Owl 39 

/ A Study of Ferns 58 

/statue to Morazan in Tegucigalpa 79 

V General Bogran, President of Honduras 86 

7a Salvador Belle 97 

7 Inner Court of Private Residence ....... 106 

»^ Coffee Picking in Guatemala . . , 119 

^Type of Coast Indian . . . 137 

/The Wonderful Buddhist Temple of Cambodia . . . .146 

/An Angle of the Great Court 161 

-/ Pagodas in the City of Angkor 178 

•^The Palace at Petropolis, where the Emperor was deposed . . 219 
VThe Sacred White Elephant . . 226 



MAPS. 

•i Central America, with Route of the Author . . . Facing page 1 
V The Lesser Antilles, West Indies, with Route of the Author " 191 
i The Home of the White Elephant . 236 



I. 
IN AND OUT OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

There are many lines of steamers by which Central 
America may be reached from the United States, though 
some of the routes are roundabout and tedious. To say 
nothing of several lines of fruiting steamers which go 
from New York and from New Orleans to various ports 
on the Caribbean (the Atlantic) coast, we have, of course, 
the comfortable large steamers of the Pacific Mail Com- 
pany, which sail three times a month from New York to 
Aspinwall, and connect, via the Panama Railroad, with 
others that go from Panama to San Francisco. These 
call at about one half of the Pacific Central American 
ports, while three other steamers of the same line touch 
each month at all of them. A Spanish line has two 
steamers per month from Panama to San Francisco, call- 
ing at all ports. An American company sends one 
steamer a month from Guatemala to San Francisco, 
touching at ports all along the coasts of Mexico and 
Lower California; and a Mexican steamer runs once a 



I. 
IN AND OUT OF CENTRAL AMERICA. 



INTRODUCTOEY. 

There are many lines of steamers by which Central 
America may be reached from the United States, though 
some of the routes are roundabout and tedious. To say 
nothing of several lines of fruiting steamers which go 
from New York and from New Orleans to various ports 
on the Caribbean (the Atlantic) coast, we have, of course, 
the comfortable large steamers of the Pacific Mail Com- 
pany, which sail three times a month from New York to 
Aspinwall, and connect, via the Panama Railroad, with 
others that go from Panama to San Francisco. These 
call at about one half of the Pacific Central American 
ports, while three other steamers of the same line touch 
each month at all of them. A Spanish line has two 
steamers per month from Panama to San Francisco, call- 
ing at all ports. An American company sends one 
steamer a month from Guatemala to San Francisco, 
touching at ports all along the coasts of Mexico and 
Lower California; and a Mexican steamer runs once a 



2 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

month from Guatemala to Guaymas, in the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia, whence the Mexican Sonora Eailway connects, by 
a road three hundred and fifty miles long, with our 
Southern Pacific and Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 
Railroads. The steamers, therefore, are numerous enough^ 
but they carry you such winding ways that while by the 
shortest route it would take at least ten days to reach a 
capital of one of the republics, by the longest you would 
need one whole month. 

First, let m.e correct some popular impressions about 
Central America as to size and population. Its entire 
area is a little less than that of our State of California, or,, 
including Balize (the colony of British Honduras, which 
may very properly be reckoned with it), its area is a little 
less than that of France, while its total population is but. 
that of the city of Paris ! Of course it lies wholly within 
the tropics, though it is the belts adjoining each ocean 
which have torrid climates. The high lands of the in- 
terior, five and six thousand feet above the sea, could 
have been no more effectively situated in a temperate 
zone. Central America extends in a general northwest 
and southeast direction, between ten degrees each of lati- 
tude and longitude (namely, the parallels of 8° and 18° 
north and 82° and 92° west), a total length of nearly one 
thousand miles ; while the greatest breadth, that along 
the northern boundary of Nicaragua, is but three hundred 
miles, and the least, in Costa Eica, not one hundred. In 
fact, in the central axis of Costa Eica stands a not 
very conspicuous mountain, from whose summit, in clear 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 3 

weather, both oceans may easily be seen. Nicaragua and 
Costa Eica have nearly as much sea-coast upon one ocean 
as upon the other. Honduras has by far the greater por- 
tion on the Atlantic, and Guatemala on the Pacific, each 
having but one good seaport on its lesser extent of coast. 
Salvador looks only upon the Pacific, and Balize upon the 
Atlantic. In fact, Balize stands in about the same rela- 
tion, in size and shaj^e, to Guatemala as does Salvador to 
Honduras, remembering, of course, that they are upon 
opposite sides of the vast isthmus. 

The usually accurate Humboldt mistakes in saying 
that the chain of the Andes extends unbroken from Co- 
lombia to Mexico. There are a great many short irregu- 
lar ranges, and their general trend is east and west. 
Honduras is so broken and hillocky as to have reminded 
me of the West India island of Dominica, whose surface 
Columbus aptly compared to the appearance of a lot of 
stiff paper after being rumpled in the hand. The volca- 
noes — of which there are some fifty in Central America, 
most of them being extinct — though more or less isolated, 
appear to be in irregular lines not far distant from the 
Pacific. The general superficial appearance of Central 
America may be said to be — save on the Caribbean coasts, 
where it is low and level — that of a region of forest-clad 
hills, fertile valleys, large lakes, and small rivers. All the 
capitals are in the interior, and are situated generally at 
an altitude of from three to five thousand feet, where the 
climate is cool and salubrious; the seaports connecting 
with the capitals are small, hot, and unhealthy. 



4 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

The history of Central America is perhaps too well 
known to necessitate more than a reference to the fact 
that the five republics now found there formed originally 
a colony or province of Spain (called, by the way, Gruate- 
mala), under the viceroyalty of a captain-general. In 
1823 they established their independence, and constituted 
a federation styled the " United States of Central Ameri- 
ca," with a President and a Federal Congress modeled 
upon our own. This union lasted only sixteen years, 
when the different members of the confederation became 
sovereign and independent. Several attempts have since 
been made to unite these republics — that of Barrios being 
fresh in the minds of all. The states of Central Ameri- 
ca are no less active in revolution and in warring with 
each other than those of South America. However, in 
February, 1889, the Central American republics agreed 
upon a treaty, which it is hoped will help to bring about 
a lasting union. It provides that if any difficulty shall 
arise between these states, it shall be settled without 
war by the arbitration of some one of the following 
nations: the United States, Argentine Eepublic, Chili, 
Mexico, Switzerland, or of any of the great European 
powers; that none of the five republics shall form alli- 
ances with outside nations without the consent of all ; 
and that delegates from the five republics shall meet 
annually to consider matters of mutual interest. 

Naturally it is impossible to travel to advantage in 
Central America without a thorough knowledge of the 
Spanish language. Through the help of foreign resi- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 5 

dents you may possibly succeed in getting to the capi- 
tals, but such a yisit will lose half its flavor and value. 
The sole dependence for interior travel is the mule. The 
roads are generally mere trails, and all but impassable 
during the rainy season — nearly one half the year. There 
are less than four hundred miles of railway in all Central 
America, and trains are generally run at about the speed 
of ordinary glaciers. Hence, though Costa Eica has more 
than one hundred miles of railway, the mail is carried 
on mule-back, while in ^^arts of Salvador and Honduras 
it is actually borne afoot. The train that pierces the 
most populous districts of Costa Rica until quite recently 
ran only when there were sufficient freight and passen- 
gers to " pay," and even now its trips are but tri- weekly. 
There are several fair cart-roads, but you seldom find 
lines of stages running upon them. Such conveniences 
as "through routes" are non-existent. No train was 
ever known to connect with a steamer, no stage with a 
train, scarcely any mule with a stage. Your only de- 
pendence, as I have just said, is upon the stout and 
patient mule — a generally, though wrongfully, abused 
animal which has carried me safely for many thousands 
of miles. When about to undertake a journey, you must 
engage mules not only for yourself, baggage, and servant, 
but often for tents and provisions also. The hotels in 
the seaports are mere sheds or warehouses, dirty, full of 
fleas, mosquitoes, and, even worse, with wretched food, 
badly cooked. In some of the capitals approximations 
to comfortable hotels are found ; but they are pretty sure 



6 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

to be managed by foreigners — either Frenchmen, Ital- 
ians, or Germans. Travel is generally undertaken at 
night, to avoid the heat and glare of day, and twelve 
hours at a stretch in the saddle are not thought an ex- 
cessive ride. The traveler, therefore, who sees very much 
of the interior may expect to encounter many petty in- 
conveniences, annoyances, and hardships. Though peril 
is not always added, yet it will be well to wear conspic- 
uously a revolver, since its possessor will thus receive 
proper attention and be free from insult — not that there 
will probably be any actual necessity for its use. For 
traveling expenses. United States gold coin may be taken, 
or Chilian and Peruvian silver dollars, the latter being 
the more bulky, but freely circulating at their full value 
in all the republics. Several of these have paper money 
also, which, though easier to carry, is usually so much 
depreciated in value that the country people are suspi- 
cious of it. 'No passport to enter is at present required, 
though sometimes permits to leave, as in Guatemala and 
Costa Rica, are necessary. 

Among the 2,500,000 inhabitants of Central America 
you find, besides pure Indians and negroes, a great num- 
ber of curiously crossed races. A Spaniard is here, of 
course, as much of a foreigner as a Japanese would be. 
Perhaps a quarter of the population are Creoles, or people 
of European parentage. Among the mixed races you 
notice especially the mestizoes, or descendants of a white 
father and Indian mother; mulattoes, the offspring of 
whites and Africans ; and the zamboes, half-breed negroes 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 7 

and Indians. All tints are to be seen, from the chalky 
white of the hill-dwellers of Costa Eica — the purest na- 
tive blood — shading almost imperceptibly down, through 
octoroons and quadroons, to reddish-colored Indians and, 
finally, coal-black negroes. Negroes are found in any 
number only on the Caribbean side and chiefly in the 
British province of Balize. In Guatemala are a great 
many Indians — aborigines, or their direct descendants. 
You notice them especially in the streets and markets of 
the capital, and they always prove interesting. They be- 
long to the great Quiche family, of which as many as fifty 
tribes are scattered through Central America. In Guate- 
mala there are sixteen aboriginal idioms. About one 
thousand foreigners — Germans, English, French, Italians, 
and Americans — live there. The members of the diplo- 
matic corps accredited to the five states make their head- 
quarters in Guatemala, going, as business may require, to 
the other capitals. They all have the rank of minister- 
resident. Only seven foreign powers are at present rep- 
resented — England, France, Spain, Austria, Germany, 
Italy, and the United States. In each of the other re- 
publics a few foreigners reside on their coffee or sugar 
estates, or engage in mercantile affairs. 

The real wealth of Central America is in its vegetable 
productions, though minerals are fast becoming an im- 
portant industry. In Honduras and Salvador several 
(North) American mining companies do business. Hon- 
duras is altogether the richest country in mineral re- 
sources, gold, silver, copper, zinc, lead, platina, quicksil- 



8 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

ver, iron, coal, opals, asbestos, and marble having been 
found there. At present, gold and silver are about the 
only ores mined. The chief export of Central America is 
coffee, and next in order would probably follow cabinet 
woods and dye woods, gold and silver bullion, sugar, and 
fruits. The greater part of the export trade is with 
Great Britain and the United States, while the imports 
are chiefly from G-ermany, France, and Great Britain. In 
addition to the duties on imports and exports, the reve- 
nues are largely derived from monopolies of spirits and 
tobacco. These countries have, too, the same simple and 
high-principled manner of getting rid of their just debts, 
or large portions of them, as have Turkey, Spain, and 
Peru. Sometimes the process is known as " consolidat- 
ing," again as " converting," rarely as " refunding," most 
often as "scaling." The method might at least with 
great propriety be designated as very " scaly." Aggre- 
gates are reduced from fifty to seventy-five per cent 
merely by a stroke of the pen and a notice in the official 
gazette. Honduras, altogether the poorest and most back- 
ward of these republics, has the large debt of $31,000,- 
000, interest mostly unpaid. Nicaragua and Salvador 
have relatively small debts, but both these states are poor 
and inert. It can not be that any of the Central Ameri- 
can republics are, like the effete monarchies of Europe, 
impoverished by their war establishments, for the sum 
total of their armies gives but six thousand men, and 
navies there are none. An ordinary revolution in these 
countries — such as occurs every few months — will not 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 9 

have engaged on both sides more than one hundred men, 
and you generally notice among the lists of killed and 
wounded about as many major-generals as high-privates. 

The government of each of these republics is vested in 
a president, who is generally elected for four years, one 
or two vice-presidents, and four or six ministers. The 
legislative power is intrusted to a congress of senators and 
deputies. Suffrage is universal. The Roman Catholic is, 
of course, the state religion, and is generally duly recog- 
nized as such, though other religions are protected. In 
Guatemala, however, the clerical government was over- 
thrown in 1871, and many of the old convents and 
churches have been turned into Government offices, 
schools, and hotels. Thus, in the capital, the Bureau of 
Liquors and Tobacco now occupies the building where 
once the Dominican Friars held undisputed sway. The 
Eevenue and Customs Bureau occupies the Franciscan 
convent, and the Post- Office is in the building which once 
sheltered the members of the First Order of St. Francis. 
The Government Palace was once church property. The 
Grand Hotel was formerly the private residence of a 
wealthy Catholic family who, for using the Church power 
politically, were banished by Barrios, and had their prop- 
erty confiscated. Education, though not general in Cen- 
tral America, is yet becoming prominent in at least two 
of the states — Guatemala and Salvador. Guatemala has 
naturally the largest number of educational institutions, 
and their general excellence and cheapness serve to draw 
pupils from the other and smaller republics. Besides 



10 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

those of the varying grades and the professional schools 
(military, engineering, medical, etc.), evening schools are 
provided for mechanics and workingmen, and special 
schools are opened for girls. 

By the way, Salvador, and not San Salvador (as we 
were tanght at school), is the official title of the smallest 
of the five republics. San Salvador is the name of the 
capital. Salvador has a great number of volcanoes, and 
so has Nicaragua. One day, at Leon, the largest city in 
Nicaragua, I counted fourteen volcanoes in sight from 
the cathedral roof. Several of these are continuously 
active, their steep and smooth purple cones, with spirals 
of fleecy smoke curling lazily upward, giving always a 
unique and pleasing character to the landscape. But just 
at present Nicaragua is chiefly interesting from its pro- 
posed interoceanic canal, while Salvador provokes most 
attention because of its frequent and severe earthquake 
shocks. Guatemala, however, is the most prosperous and 
important, contains more than half the population of all 
Central America, and has a revenue greater than that of 
all the other republics combined. Its capital has upward 
of sixty thousand inhabitants, and is a sort of miniature 
city of Mexico — as Brussels is a diminutive Paris — in 
fact, its citizens are very fond of styling it the " Paris of 
Central America." There you find paved and clean 
streets, the electric light, horse cars, telephones, fine Gov- 
ernment buildings, a large and imposing opera-house, 
pretty parks, good hackney carriages, and you observe 
that the city is admirably policed by men wearing the 



CENTRAL AMERICA. H 

identical uniform of the New York "guardians of the 
peace." There are daily newspapers, clubs, and, near at 
hand, open-air swimming baths and a race-course. In 
short, in both capital and country, Guatemala is especially 
interesting. 

Having now given a somewhat general and hasty view 
of Central America, I shall next proceed in detail to the 
narrative of my visit to its five little republics. 



1. COSTA RICA. 

In September, 1887, I left New York in the Pacific 
Mail steamer Newport for Aspinwall, where, after a re- 
markably pleasant voyage of nine days, I safely arrived, 
crossing the Isthmus of Panama the same day. Two 
days afterward I sailed in the steamer Clyde, of the 
Central American and Mexican Line, for Punta Arenas, 
the Pacific seaport of Costa Rica, four hundred and fifty- 
four miles distant. On the morning of October 2d we 
passed the peninsula of Burica, one half of which be- 
longs to Costa Rica and the other to the Republic of 
Colombia, the boundary line between South and Central 
America running hence in a northeasterly direction to 
the Caribbean Sea. Next we crossed the mouth of the 
Gulf of Dolce, from which a canal route to the Chiriqui 
Lagoon was once surveyed. The coast of Costa Rica from 
here to the Gulf of Nicoya is hilly, descending generally 



12 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

abruptly to the ocean, and densely covered with forest. 
As we neared Punta Arenas great patches of grassland, 
here and there, were visible. !N"o evidence of human 
habitation was apparent until we entered the gulf, which 
is a great expanse of water with ample depth for the 
largest vessels. Its shores are quite diversified with little 
wooded islands and cone-shaped hills, though none of the 
latter reach a greater altitude than two thousand feet. 
But little of the town of Punta Arenas appears from the 
Gulf of Nicoya. A long way off you see an iron wharf, 
covered with a great iron-roofed building, and back of it 
the two or three houses of the Customs Department and 
Post-Ofl&ce. The gently sloping beach is very broad and 
smooth, and of dark, almost black, sand. On either side 
are immense stretches of cocoanut-palms. Beyond the 
town rise cloud-capped, forest-clad hills, extending north 
and south. No vessels of any sort were in port, though a 
few lighters were anchored near the wharf. There were 
no lighthouses, but an old locomotive headlight, on the 
end of the wharf, served the necessary purpose. Only 
two passengers were bound for Costa Rica — my traveling 
companion, a Brazilian by birth and parentage and an 
American by choice and naturalization, and myself. 
After a visit from the port and custom ofiicers, we took 
boat for the shore. From one building floated the flag 
of Costa Rica, an oblong banner with vertical stripes — 
two of blue, two of white, and one of red in the center, 
representing the five provinces of the republic. As we 
neared the wharf, I noticed a railway car at the edge 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 13 

of the jungle, to the right, and upon a lighter just 
before us, a dozen great uncouth pelicans sitting in a 
row. At the end of the wharf was a steam-crane, 
which is used to raise freight from the lighters, and 
also passengers when the sea is very rough, as it fre- 
quently is. The machinery stood on a foundation that 
made a complete circuit, thus loading directly into 
hand-cars which ran through the custom-house building 
to the railroad that extends a portion of the way toward 
the capital of San Jose. The custom-house examination 
was long, minute and exasperating, nearly everything be- 
ing taken from our trunks and every small package being 
opened. Duties are high, and there is besides a wharfage 
for every pound of baggage or freight received upon the 
pier. No other landing is in use. The town takes its 
name, Punta Arenas, from the sandy point or peninsula 
upon which it is built, a low, narrow, and level expanse 
of sand, which extends a long distance into the gulf. 
Near its eastern juncture with the mainland a large river 
enters the gulf, thus making a protected harbor, though 
one of not very deep water. The town is laid out at right 
angles, with wide streets, along the centers of which at 
frequent intervals extend posts supporting kerosene lamps. 
The sidewalks are narrow and formed of rough stones, 
and sometimes of bricks or tiles. The streets are much 
overgrown with grass. Orange, lime, and magnolia trees 
shade the sidewalks, and cocoanut-palms, papayas, tama- 
rinds, mangoes, bananas, and almonds—their foliage grow- 
ing in horizontal strata— abound in the gardens. The 



14 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

dwellings are half concealed by these trees and by flowers, 
besides having large orchards of fruit trees adjoining. In 
this way you do not realize the size of the town until 
after a walk over it, though its population may not be 
more than five thousand. A popular style of fence is 
formed of growing cacti eight feet or more in height. 
The dwellings are usually of but one story, with boarded 
sides and a tiled roof. The solitary hotel of the place is 
also in this style, while its partitions reach only to a point 
that is on a level with the eaves. This gives more air but 
less privacy. Meals, at which beans, rice, and bananas 
always figure, are given at 10 A. m. and 4 p. m. These 
are equivalent to two full dinners per day, and in addi- 
tion coffee and bread and butter are served from 6 to 8 
A. M. In this climate the windows are glassless and all 
the houses have piazzas. Hammocks or canvas cots are 
used for sleeping purposes. The stores contain multifari- 
ous stocks. There are many drinking shops, where the 
native rum — aguardiente — and imported beers are retailed. 
The market consists of a large quadrangle of sheds, with 
limited varieties of produce exposed for sale. The poorer 
class of dwellings are mere huts, with bamboo sides and 
grass roofs. The natives are of a light-brown, mahogany 
color, of good height, and well formed. They are mesti- 
zoes, or crosses between whites and Indians of varying 
strains. All bear amiable, smiling faces. The men have 
very scant beard but generally heavy shocks of hair, while 
the women have very long and thick black, glossy hair 
which they generally wear braided and coiled upon the 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 15 

back of the head or in two long braids hanging down the 
back. The men content themselves with straw hat and 
calico shirt and trousers, or more often merely a merino 
undershirt in place of the cotton shirt. The women wear 
very low-cut chemises and gay-colored skirts, and, loosely 
placed upon the shoulders or sometimes lifted upon the 
head, a light shawl or mantilla of some dark color. Most 
of the men and women go barefooted. The women have 
the attractive habit of wearing flowers in their hair, a 
small bouquet being often secured with a large tortoise- 
shell comb in a very piquant fashion. The men do not 
seem to be such inveterate smokers as those of the South 
American states, but, curiously enough, the women are 
rarely seen without cigarette or cigar. 

Though Punta Arenas is the largest seaport of Costa 
Eica and on the direct road to the capital, I was not, on 
this account, the less sure of finding a primitive condition 
of affairs. One of the first indications of this was that 
there was but one mail a day to the capital, the post-office 
being only open one hour ere its departure. Stamps were 
obtainable, not at the office, but of a merchant a long 
distance off, who alone had the right of sale. The uni- 
versal presence of the sewing-machine was the sole sug- 
gestion of progress. Nearly every house contained one. 
I observed, loitering around the custom-house wharf, some 
dirty, miserable-looking creatures, clad only in shirt and 
trousers and bearing rusty sword bayonets and cartridge 
boxes. These were soldiers of the regular army of Costa 
Eica ! The entire force consists of nine hundred men. 



16 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

Eailway tracks lead through several of the streets of 
Punta Arenas to huge coffee warehouses, which during 
the season are full to repletion. The town is in exactly 
the same latitude as Puerto Limon, and San Jose, the 
capital, is but four or five miles south of a straight line 
drawn through these seaports. A railway has been sur- 
veyed from port to port, but from neither end has the 
work been pushed toward completion. From Punta 
Arenas it extends but thirteen miles to a town named 
Esparta. Only three trains weekly run between these 
two places. The schedule time for leaving Punta Arenas 
is 3 P. M., but it was 4 when we started. The pro- 
jectors saw no necessity for building a station. A whis- 
tle several times repeated gives notice that in twenty 
minutes the locomotive will start. Our train consisted 
of one passenger car and two freight cars. The engine 
was made at Eodger's factory, Trenton, N. J. ; the cars 
were from Wilmington, Del. Only one engine being 
employed on this section of the road, the risk of collision 
was infinitely minimized. It would have been averse to 
Costa Eican policy had not the ticket office been several 
blocks from the point of departure. The fare was thrice, 
and the speed one third as great as in the United States 
for the same distance. The engine burned wood. Our 
conductor was dressed in jacket and trousers of dark- 
blue cloth, and a revolver bristled menacingly from his 
right hip-pocket. We stopped but twice— once to get 
water and once to make steanu At first the road led 
through a tropically rich forest, peopled with birds of 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 17 

brilliant plumage, but presently it turned inland, and 
whisked us from this leafy environment until we reached 
the terminus. 

Esparta, half hidden by dense vegetation, lies seven 
hundred feet above sea-level. It was nearing the end of 
the rainy season, and the vegetation was at its rankest 
and at its deepest green. Upon one side of the ever- 
present plaza was a good hotel kept by an old French- 
man ; upon another side stood the " church " — a misera- 
ble old shed enshrined in a pretty flower garden. From 
Esparta you may go by horse or mule to Alajuela, and 
thence by railway to San Jose, a distance of thirty-nine 
miles. "We hired mules for our baggage and horses for 
ourselves and guide. The steeds of Costa Rica are very 
small, but tough and sure-footed. The road was wide, 
in part macadamized, in part badly paved. Coffee and 
the general produce of the country were carried chiefly 
in ox-carts. These are simply small oblong boxes, rest- 
ing upon wooden block-wheels three feet in diameter. 
Each yoke of oxen pulls by means of a cross-bar lashed 
to the horns and forehead in such a manner that neither 
of the beasts can turn his head without the other, and 
even then only slightly. This cruel custom is practiced 
all over Central and South America. The drivers guide 
the oxen with iron^pointed poles, but the guiding is goad- 
ing as well. 

We left Esparta at daybreak, The road dipped into 
little valleys and out of them again, and leaped small 
streams upon firm stone bridges approached by long 



38 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

causeways. The country was but thinly settled and 
sparsely cultivated ; in fact, but a twentieth part is thus 
redeemed. The bamboo houses were palmetto-thatched. 
Often at one end of a little veranda I saw a mud and 
stone oven, shaped like a bee-hive, and, like those in 
savage Africa, furnished with mortar and pestle for 
pounding corn. Sometimes that staple was piled high, 
but no vegetable patch was seen. The rainy season not 
being quite over, few travelers and little merchandise 
were in transit We breakfasted at San Mateo, a ham- 
let a few hundred feet higher than Esparta. Here 
the rain fell in torrents during the rest of the day and 
most of the night, but, donning rubber leggings and 
ponchos, we crossed the Aguacate hills and reached the 
town of Atenas at 8 p. m. During the last hour we jour- 
neyed in total darkness. We passed the night in the 
public room of the hotel in company with eight other 
persons. Next morning we pushed on to Alajuela, 
reaching it by noon. The vegetation we passed was rich 
in mango, bamboo, papaya, bread-fruit, orange, guava, 
gourd (the calabash), palm (the royal variety), and tama- 
rind. A handsome stone bridge took us across the Rio 
Grande, one of the larger rivers, whose upper waters were 
enriched by mines of copper, gold, and coal. A few miles 
north of Atenas are the gold mines of Aguacate. The 
chief cities of Costa Rica are situated on the highlands 
of the interior, and are comparatively near together. 
They begin with Alajuela, about three thousand feet, 
and continue with Heredia, San Jose, and Cartago, in a 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 19 

direction nearly due east. Cartago is about five thousand 
feet above the sea. Fifteen miles north of Alajuela is 
the twin volcano Poas, about nine thousand feet in alti- 
tude. Alajuela is a large town, laid out at right angles, 
with narrow macadamized streets and one-story houses. 
The country between it and Atenas is half forest and 
half pasture land. The classical names that abounded, 
such as Sparta, Athens, and Carthage, sounded strange 
to me, accustomed as I had lately been to towns and 
saints of Spanish nomenclature. In the center of the 
plaza of Alajuela was a handsome bronze fountain. On 
one side stood the cathedral, on another the cuartel, or 
barracks, and on a third the town hall. The railway 
from this town is a narrow gauge, with cars and locomo- 
tives of American make. At that date it extended only 
to Cartago, twenty -six miles off, whence a break of 
twenty-seven miles could be covered only by mule or horse. 
That distance traversed, the railway again appeared, and 
continued for seventy-one miles until it reached Puerto 
Limon, on the Caribbean Sea. All baggage is paid for 
extra in Costa Pica. From Alajuela to San Jose we 
passed through an almost continuous coffee field, this 
being the center of the best plantations. Our train ac- 
commodated many ladies in black gowns and shawls, 
though quite bonnetless, and men in jackets and trousers 
of dark cloth, wearing Panama hats. "We alighted in 
an insignificant station where one-horse cabs were in 
waiting. I passed a square with a pretty fountain in its 
center, and caught sight of a marble monument, consist- 



20 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

ing of a bust of the late President Fernandez, supported 
on a pyramidal base. Clean macadamized streets ran be- 
tween single-story houses with mud walls and tile roofs. 
The shops that abounded resembled wooden boxes. The 
two-story hotel that I reached was set off with the om- 
nipresent bar-room and billiard-room, to say nothing of 
the New York piano in the ladies' parlor. 

The city of San Jose lies in the midst of a beautiful 
valley. It is nearly level, with perhaps a gentle slope 
toward the west. From the towers of the cathedral a fine 
prospect may be had, more especially of the surrounding 
hills, planted with coffee, sugar-cane, corn, beans, and po- 
tatoes. It is a picturesque combination of tree and field, 
cultivation and uncultivation contributing their diversi- 
ties. Private properties are prettily divided by living 
fences of cactus and wild pineapple. The city itself does 
not offer much architectural variety. It consists mainly 
of single-story houses, built uniformly, with low sloping 
roofs, whence eaves project shelteringly over the side- 
walks. A few churches, the President's house, and the 
Government Palace alone break the monotony of the en- 
semlle. The streets are right-angled, lit with electricity, 
and macadamized or cobble-stoned. The sidewalks, from 
one to four feet wide, are of brick, stone, or tile, edged 
with curb and bordered with good gutters. The princi- 
pal business street is named Calle del Comercio, Here 
are the retail shops, which, when not small square boxes, 
are long and very narrow. They contain large supplies, 
among which sewing-machines and gay-colored garments 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 21 

are prominent. The plaza is appropriately named Cen- 
tral Park, on account of its being near the middle of the 
city. It is a beautiful little inclosure, surrounded by a 
high and ornate iron fence and containing a fountain, 
fine beds of flowers, smooth-shaved lawns, neatly graveled 
walks, and a pavilion for the band. Orchids were inter- 
spersed among the trees, and splendid tame paroquets — 
yellow, blue, black, and gray — with clipped wings, were in- 
terspersed among both. To the east of the park was the 
cathedral, and to the south were the barracks. Hard by 
was Government House on Comercio Street. On the same 
street stands the market, a fine structure, occupying an 
entire square and well adapted to its purpose. Its quad- 
rangular building is devoted to manufactures. Its open 
sheds and the intervening spaces of the interior abound 
with vegetable produce, and give elbow-room to the curi- 
ous female butchers. Saturday is the grand market day. 
All classes barter or buy, and lay in enough to last until 
the following Saturday. The President's palace is a short 
block away from the Government House. It is a two- 
story stucco building, flanked by a solitary date-palm. In 
front a sentinel parades, one or two officers lounge, and a 
bugler and a drummer perform their duties. The drum- 
mer is a little barefoot boy with an apparently toy drum 
of apparently home manufacture. In fact the rank and 
file of the Costa Rican army are mostly boys dressed in 
blue-duck jackets and trousers, wearing caps, but neither 
shoes nor stockings, and armed with modern breech-load- 
ing rifles with sword-bayonets attached. The officers 



22 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

wear a blue-clotli uniform, and are so omnipresent as to 
seem to outnumber the privates. Guard-mounting and 
inspection in the morning and parades in the afternoon 
occur daily in the streets opposite the President's Palace. 
The military band always appears at these ceremonies, 
playing waltzes and opera-boufCe music. The city is po- 
liced almost wholly by boys, who wear blue uniforms and 
ungainly caps like those used in the Dutch army. Each 
of these adolescent policemen carries a small club of hard 
wood, and displays a silver button which indicates his of- 
ficial capacity. The police have but little to do in San 
Jose, however. It is an extremely well-ordered commu- 
nity, where crime and violence are almost unknown. 
The chief violence is that of the elements during the 
rainy season, which lasts about one hundred days. The 
rain begins every day at noon and continues with consid- 
erable energy until next morning. 

On Sunday I attended military mass in the cathedral 
■ — a large structure with Doric fagade and two towers 
and a dome above that part where the choir is located. 
The pediment over the main entrance accommodates a 
clock. Ascending a broad flight of steps, you enter be- 
tween rows of Doric columns. The semi-cylindrical roof 
of the nave rests upon a double row of huge pillars. 
The side aisles are decorated only with paintings of " the 
stages of Christ." The light-colored tile floor is vari- 
patterned. All the interior gleams with white and gold. 
Inside the altar-railing are chairs of state for the Presi- 
dent and the bishop. The altar itself is not particularly 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 23 

grand. The military mass was the occasion of pictur- 
esqueness. The band was composed of forty instru- 
mentalists, in blue coats and red trousers. To this con- 
course were added a company of troops in blue, with 
flashing bayonets, and a still more imposing array of offi- 
cers in elaborate uniforms. The contingent of police- 
youths was not without a sort of eccentric expressive- 
ness. These detachments occupied the front and center 
of the nave. The mahogany benches on both sides were 
occupied by the " best " people — the men in dark clothes, 
the women resplendent in many-hued skirts and mantles 
of pink, lavender, yellow, and black, elaborately embroid- 
ered with flowers. None of the women wore hats, and 
their dark hair, creamy complexions, and flashing eyes 
were more dazzling than all else the cathedral contained. 
ISTo need of the golden neck-chains and ear-rings so afflu- 
ently displayed. 'No use of the rouge which was not used 
or of the powder that was. To invoke cosmetics for such 
beauty would be like adding light to electricity or glory 
to the Victoria regia. The poorer classes were also pres- 
ent — ^barefoot men in jackets, barefoot women in skirts 
and chemises, with scarfs or mantillas. Light streamed 
upon the assemblage through large upper windows, and 
an occasional sun-burst brightened the stained-glass back- 
ground of the choir. When the congregation knelt or 
rose the effect was that of a thousand prisms. The band 
played a selection from Lucia, the grand organ alter- 
nately threatened and cajoled, the priests intoned, the 
people responded, and I stood spell-bound. The serv- 



24 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

ice was brief, however. At its conclusion the military 
left to the tap of the drum, and marched gayly down 
the street to airs from La Fille de Madame Angot. 
On Sundays in San Jose the banks and the Gov- 
ernment offices are closed, but most of the shops remain 
open. 

In front of the cathedral, on both sides, are pretty 
gardens. Back of one of these stands the sacristy or 
small vestry, and back of the other the two-story dwell- 
ing of the bishop. The Government Palace is a plain 
two-story building on the Calle Comercio. It is built in 
a quadrangle, with a fountain in the center of the court. 
Down-stairs, facing the entrance, is Congress Hall, a 
small oblong room with a ceiling paneled in white and 
gold. Twenty mahogany desks are ranged in a semi- 
circle around a chair of state for the presiding officer, 
surmounted by a crimson canopy. Beyond the desks are 
benches for the populace, and at each end of the room a 
small gallery is erected for ladies or for orchestras, or for 
both. Handsome crystal chandeliers depend from the 
ceiling. The walls are adorned with neatly framed por- 
traits of Costa Eica's great men — ^presidents, generals, 
statesmen — among whom I noticed likenesses of Mora- 
zan, Carillo, Guardia, and General Bernardo Soto, the 
present head of the republic. The second story is occu- 
pied by the offices of the various secretaries. Two even- 
ings in each week the military band plays in front of the 
President's palace. Stands, with candles, are placed for 
the musicians, and the people promenade up and down 




The Breadfruit Tree. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 25 

the neighboring streets. This band succeeds best with 
dance music, native or foreign, such as is generally 
strummed on guitars with Castanet accompaniment. 

The " Savanna," which we one day visited, is a large 
level plain of beautiful and pathless meadow-land, which 
would make a splendid campo de marte for the army of 
a great power like Germany. Crossing its center at right 
angles are double rows of trees. The Savanna is the 
popular place for horseback exercise morning and even- 
ing. It belongs to the city, but is used as a general 
pasture-ground. From it may be seen the little towns of 
Alajuela and Heredia, their white walls shining brightly 
amid the dark-green foliage by which they are half en- 
veloped. The Savanna is bordered by extensive planta- 
tions of coffee and sugar-cane, with a few farm-houses 
intersprinkled. Circling around are the enchanting hills 
which begirt San Jose, like a ring of verde-antique in- 
closing clustered opals. Away to the northwest arise the 
twin peaks of the volcano Poas; to the north looms 
Bomba ; while to the east towers Irazu, eleven thousand 
five hundred feet high. The latter is now a dead volca- 
no, but once it overwhelmed and destroyed the old capi- 
tal of Cartago. 

Since my departure there has been a series of de- 
structive earthquake shocks in Costa Rica. Perhaps the 
worst of them was that which occurred on December 30, 
1888. It is believed to have been caused by the eruption 
of the Poas volcano, which had been inactive for a num- 
ber of years. An average of three slight shocks was felt 
3 



26 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

daily for several days after the first. Business during 
that time was almost entirely suspended, and the majority 
of the people in San Jose camped in the public squares, 
fearing that their houses would fall. Both the national 
Capitol and the beautiful and ancient cathedral fronting 
the little Central Park are in ruins, and many other 
buildings were injured, among them the presidential pal- 
ace, City Hall, and National Post-Office. In San Jose 
eight persons were killed, and a much greater number 
injured. The damage reached the sum of two million 
dollars. 

San Jose contains a number of hackney-coaches and 
some few private carriages, the former plying to and from 
the railway station, but most of the long-distance transit 
is made on horse or mule back, though very few women 
are thus seen, either on business or pleasure. At the 
large stables saddle-horses may be hired in any number, 
for any time, or may be permanently boarded. The 
horses of the country are, as I have said, small but very 
enduring and sure-footed. A very good one may be pur- 
chased for seventy-five dollars. Three newspapers are 
published — two dailies and a tri-weekly. None are printed 
on Monday. These publications are entitled La Eepub- 
lica. El Comercio, and La Gaceta. They are single 
sheets, about eighteen inches by twelve, and are sold, the 
two former at ten cents each and the latter at five. They 
contain editorials, telegrams, a local gazette, shipping in- 
telligence of the ports of Punta Arenas and Limon, and a 
goodly variety of advertisements. La Gaceta is the offi- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 27 

cial journal, published at the national printing-office, and 
containing the acts of Congress and the reports of the 
various secretaries of the Government, the municipal an- 
nouncements, and so forth. Under the head of police 
instructions, the newspapers indicate such drug stores as 
take turn in remaining open all night. Journals that 
circulate between the various republics are not required 
to pay postage. Throughout Costa Rica a telegram costs 
only about one cent a word. English is much spoken in 
San Jose. One hundred Americans — that is to say, one 
hundred United States citizens — are found there. Next 
to these in number come the English, the German, and 
the French, in the order named. Many of the natives 
speak English, having been educated in the United States 
or England ; not a few have added to their intelligence 
by extensive travel in Europe. 

All the houses of San Jose contain pictures of saints. 
As a rule these are very gaudily colored, and inserted in 
cheap frames of wood or metal. They are always in act- 
ive demand. "When I first attended the market I saw a 
vender with a full assortment of them, in tin frames, and 
upon my returning, two hours after, I found he had sold 
the entire stock. A paper dollar of Costa Rica is worth 
but seventy-one cents, American money ; and silver dol- 
lars (Peruvian and Chilian are used) are at a premium of 
five per cent. Vultures are here, as in all South Ameri- 
can cities, the scavengers provided by nature. Early in 
the morning you see them sitting on the house-peaks, 
generally with wings outstretched to dry. During the 



28 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

day they leap about the streets in search of garbage and 
offal, fighting among themselves, and afterward sitting 
gorged and stupefied among the trees or upon the roofs. 
Their sight and scent are remarkably keen. Even before 
an animal is dead they may be seen coming from every 
direction, circling round and round, until they alight near 
their prey, where they are compelled to await the reple- 
tion of the miserable curs of the country, should a village 
be in the vicinity. These vultures, or zopilotes, as they 
are called in Spanish, are everywhere protected by the law 
from human assault. 

Among the places of amusement to which we went 
was the Teatro Municipal, where we heard Suppe's three- 
act comic opera Dona Juanita given in fair style by a 
traveling company from Spain. This theatre, said to be 
the oldest in Central America, reveals from the street 
only a stuccoed wall rising to the height of a single story 
and pierced by several large doors. In the evening the 
ticket-seller sits at one of these selling tickets by candle- 
light — orchestra, 11.25 ; gallery, 40 cents. Crossing a 
little open court with a bar-room on the right, we had to 
stoop in order to thread the low passage leading to the 
orchestra. The place was usherless, but numbers painted 
in large size upon the backs of the benches rendered con- 
spicuous the respective seats. The orchestra fauteuils 
were merely cushionless wooden benches placed inconven- 
iently near together. Many of the audience carried cush- 
ions with them. The floor was paved with large coarse 
bricks, whose dampness invited countless fleas to luxuri- 



CENTKAL AMERICA. 29 

ous revelry. The auditorium contained two rows of 
boxes and a gallery. The light both before and behind 
the curtain was furnished by kerosene. It is the custom 
for occupants of boxes to send or bring their own chairs. 
The band numbered twenty instruments, the leader play- 
ing with one hand and directing with the other. As 
usual in theatres of this caliber, especially those managed 
by members of the Latin race, the best understood mem- 
ber of the company was the prompter. He may be said 
to have given a good reading to every role. The effect 
was almost as if he were singing a duet with tenor, so- 
prano, basso, or contralto, as the case might be. There 
was no solo where his voice was not heard, and he added 
a seventh to the sextet. We had gone late, well knowing 
that we were in one of those regions of delay where pro- 
crastination is not only the thief of time, without any one's 
knowing what becomes of the stolen goods, but also the 
soul of business. In the center of the second tier, over 
the entrance, was the President's box, draped with crim- 
son cloth and faced with the arms of the republic. One 
of the proscenium boxes, intended for some of the Gov- 
ernment ministers, was similarly distinguished. The up- 
permost proscenium boxes were not more than three feet 
square, and were located just beneath the ceiling, pre- 
senting a very eccentric appearance; but one person 
could be seen peeping from each of these, like a mouse 
peering from its hole. The Central American fashion 
with theatre patrons is to go half an hour or an hour late, 
and then to go with a rush. You frequently see people 



30 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

enter, deposit their wraps and coats on seats, and then re- 
turn to the lobbies, the men to smoke, the women to 
chat. Men are rarely seen in the boxes. The latter are 
generally crowded with women and children. A man 
will leave his family in a box and take a seat with some 
male friends in the orchestra, where women are seldom 
seen. The men appear in coats of every cut and color 
except evening dress, the invariable accompaniment be- 
ing the Panama hat. The women wear gay evening toi- 
let and bonnets. The favorite colors for gowns ar^pink, 
white, blue, green, with low neck and short sleeves, flow- 
ers in the hair, louquets de corsage^ and a profusion of 
diamonds and other gems. Some of the younger were 
pretty, and would have been more so had cosmetics been 
wholly abjured. The upper classes of both sexes have 
very light complexions; the lower classes are darker. 
Meanwhile a cracked bell had twice signaled noisily from 
the stage. Nothing visible ensued. Finally, after a lapse 
of twenty minutes, the bell sounded again, the scattered 
audience rushed to their seats, and the opera began. The 
house was full. The Teatro Municipal being the only 
one in San Jose, and being open during only a small part 
of every year, audiences are always large and enthusias- 
tic. A new and more desirable play-house was building, 
however. Opera is given only one night per week, that one 
being Sunday. Announcements are made by newspaper 
advertisements, a flag flying from the top of the theatre, 
and two rockets fired at 7 p. m. on the days of repre- 
sentation. The entr'actes are very long, but are hugely 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 31 

enjoyed, the audience instantly leaving the auditorium 
for the lobbies, the women to talk and walk, the men to 
drink and smoke, beer and cigarettes being in friendly 
rivalry. Outside the theatre swarm stalls and shops 
where cakes, sweetmeats, coffee, and liquors are sold for 
the refection of the humbler classes. The evening we 
were there the performance concluded at midnight, but 
sometimes it does not end for more than an hour after. 

Very many of the Costa Kicans wear jackets without 
waistcoats, but with a bright sash around the waist. The 
stranger is startled at first by the vision of a barefooted 
man, otherwise neatly and well dressed. Another aston- 
ishing object is a woman in a skirt of dark color, but with 
the upper portion of her person attired only in a white 
sleeveless chemise. In the streets hatless women are seen 
with their hair down, though sometimes a man's Panama 
is worn, looking as if the woman had borrowed her hus- 
band's in a hurry — though no one is ever in a hurry here. 
Even the upper-class women go bareheaded in the streets. 
They dress gayly, wear high-heeled slippers or shoes, and 
occasionally carry sunshades. Even in very rainy weather 
they use no headgear, and little other shoulder covering 
than rebosas, or long, narrow scarfs. The singular separa- 
tion of the sexes in the theatre has been already noticed. 
The same separation occurs everywhere, both in public 
and private. Very seldom do men walk with women in 
the streets. They are together, of course, in church, at 
parties, and at balls ; but after a round dance the women 
huddle together in one corner and their recent partners 



32 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

do the same in another corner. In private parlors male 
visitors sit facing the ladies, never beside them ; and even 
with the children of the same family, the boys are kept 
separate from the girls. Throughout all Central and 
South America you will find in every parlor a line of 
chairs extending in a right angle with each end of the 
sofa. One of these rows is for men, the other for women. 

The Costa Eicans are very honest people. You do 
not need to lock your door in a hotel. Personal baggage 
is brought in cart from the seacoast to the capital without 
escort, or other attendant than the cart-driver, and almost 
always without loss or injury. Treasure is also sent to the 
coasts without escort. The people are very much more 
liberally disposed toward foreigners than are other Cen- 
tral American states, or than the South American states. 
Recently a Protestant American was allowed to be buried 
in the Roman Catholic cemetery of San Jose. The city 
contains a Protestant church, or chapel, where services 
are held every Sunday by a layman, the society of Protest- 
ant foreigners being, as yet, either unable or unwilling 
to support a clergyman. 

One mile from the center of the city, on the west 
side, is the Panteon, or Campo Santo, of San Jose. A 
good broad sidewalk of stone slabs follows the road, bor- 
dered by coffee plantations, directly to the gate of the 
burying-ground. Id front, on one side, is a large un- 
kempt flower garden. On the other stands the grave of 
the late President Fernandez. In one corner is an octag- 
onal vault, in the center of which lies the body of Jime- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 33 

nez, also a former President, with a recumbent figure of 
himself, carved in white marble. The cemetery is sur- 
rounded by high brick walls, and affords burial both in 
vaults and in mural tiers. The low cubical tombs re- 
minded me strongly of those built by Mussulmans. Cy- 
press and cedar trees abounded, but the grounds were in 
great disorder. The mural burials were against the 
inner face of the walls, and extended in four tiers, 
with the floral offerings and inscriptions common to all 
Eoman Catholic countries. The open vaults contained 
small altars, with wreaths and conventional pictures of 
saints. 

The International Club occupies a neat one-story 
building, and contains reception, reading, billiard, card, 
and bar rooms. Men can not remain men and be with- 
out billiards, cards, and drink. In the court was a tangle 
of beautiful flowers. The reading-room contained period- 
icals in Spanish, English, German, and French. The 
library, of perhaps two thousand volumes, was principally 
in English. German classics were found, however, in 
good force. In English, works of travel largely predomi- 
nated, and I mentally praised the discrimination of the 
library committee in having provided a copy of The 
Land of the White Elephant. My amour propre was 
not a little flattered by finding it had been well thumbed. 
The new Palace of Justice is a neat one-story building, 
with the everlasting interior court, around which are 
grouped the offices devoted to the departments of Gov- 
ernment. Mahogany and other fine woods are used in 



34 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

the furniture of these rooms. A few years ago an enor- 
mous Bull-ring of brick, at a cost of seventy- five thousand 
dollars (it is said), was built near the railway station. But 
bull-fighting not being to the taste of the Costa Eicans, 
the ring was abandoned, and is now devoted to the peace- 
ful pursuit of picking and drying coffee. 

The national factory of liquors is not unworthy of a 
visit. The Government has the monopoly of the manu- 
facture of aguardiente^ vulgarly known as rum, made 
from the essence of the sugar-cane, compounded with va- 
rious sweet liqueurs. Ouarapo is the fermented juice of 
the sugar-cane ; aguardiente is the distilled spirit. Of this 
latter preparation the natives are very fond — and foreign- 
ers are not invariably averse to it. On the hill near the 
railway station, on the eastern border of the city, is a high- 
walled inclosure which looks like a fortress. It covers 
about two acres, and contains the houses for the engine, 
the still, and the places where fermentation is carried on, 
as well as the residences of the superintendent and en- 
gineers, and accommodations for storage. You enter the 
grounds through a high stone gateway, whose pediment 
contains a clock. At the left are some offices, whence a 
custodian courteously issues to show you the premises. 
You are introduced to four large stills, manufactured in 
Glasgow on what is known as the " coffee principal." In 
this factory are employed an American engineer and two 
German and about twenty native assistants. Each of the 
fermentation houses holds four rows of large tanks, and 
each tank has the capacity of twelve thousand five hun- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 35 

dred bottles. The storage warehouses contain long rows 
of tanks made of teak wood from India, and holding each 
twenty- two thousand quarts. There were sixty of these 
tanks, yielding a total capacity for one million three hun- 
dred and twenty thousand quarts. The present manu- 
facture averages almost one million and a half annually. 
Yet with this enormous production and consumption, you 
rarely see any public drunkenness. These people, if con- 
stant drinkers, are also hard and regular workers. The 
above is only a partial statement, however. Large quan- 
tities of imported wines and beers are to be added. The 
aguardiente contains twenty-two per cent of spirit, and is 
sold wholesale at seventy-five cents per bottle. Of course, 
it is milder than our whiskies, and very much more so 
than our brandies. High on the hill back of the factory 
of liquors are the city reservoirs. Water is brought in an 
open aqueduct from a river eight miles distant. It is 
thick, but, when filtered, becomes clear, and is regarded 
as wholesome. The reservoirs are small, five in number, 
built of cut stone, the walls being ten feet high and four 
feet thick, and so curiously buttressed at intervals as to 
have a mediaeval look. The supply of water at the reser- 
voir is greater than is needed — happy inhabitants of San 
Jose — and the surplus is devoted to running the machin- 
ery of several factories. Mains convey the water from the 
reservoirs to houses and fountains. There are also a few 
hydrants for use in case of fire. The fire department, 
however, is limited to one hand-engine. The water tax 
is sixteen dollars per year. 



36 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

The total distance across Costa Rica, from ocean to 
ocean, by railway and connecting cart-road, is one hun- 
dred and seventy-five miles. Of these, on the Pacific side, 
twenty-six miles are railway and thirty-eight are cart-road. 
On the Atlantic side, eighty-four are railway and twenty- 
seven are cart-road. The railway, however, is not com- 
pleted. When it is the distance will be reduced to about 
one hundred and sixty miles. The railway on the At- 
lantic coast was expected to be finished in about two 
years. The track on the Pacific slope has been surveyed, 
but it is doubtful whether more work will be done there 
for some years. A complete railway across Costa Rica 
would be useful, but is not absolutely needed just at 
present. 

I could not leave San Jose without taking a glance at 
Cartago, thirteen miles distant. Two trains run there 
and back daily. Passengers are notified by four sharp 
locomotive whistles twenty minutes before departure. 
The central division of the Costa Rican railroad runs 
from Alajuela to Cartago. At that point it is some day 
to communicate with the railway from Limon ; and at a 
still more distant period it will be connected with Punta 
Arenas. Cartago is five thousand feet above the sea — 
one thousand higher than San Jose. The railway, con- 
sequently, has some very steep grades. It runs the whole 
distance along a mountain range which conceals deadly 
volcanoes and shelters beautiful valleys. The country is 
one vast coffee plantation, relieved with meadow-land and 
variegated with wood-crowned hills. It is not thickly 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 37 

settled. The dark and glossy leafed expanse of the coffee 
plantations is partially shaded by the long and undulat- 
ing arms of the banana, and, nestled in the embrace of 
innumerable hills, presents a panorama of Arcadian peace. 
Near the line of the railway, a short distance from San 
Jose, is the country-seat of the President of Costa Rica. 
It is an ordinary single-story, quadrangular building. A 
small fountain plays at that side which opens toward the 
railway track. A few soldiers were lolling about the door. 
The President was not yisible, but his beautiful wife was, 
and smilingly returned the salutation of one humble 
representative of a sister republic. The train was full 
of passengers, of both the first and the second class. The 
smoking of very inferior tobacco was universal, the women 
contributing to this end. I found Cartago to be a sleepy 
old place. It was formerly the capital. I stayed with an 
American who kept a good hotel on the principal square. 
In front stood the cut-stone foundation walls of the new 
cathedral. An enormous structure was indicated, and I 
did not wonder that it had never reached higher than six 
feet. Churches abound there, however, and none of them 
are of interest to a stranger. Cartago is cool, healthy, 
and uninteresting. It was soon to have a tramway, five 
miles long, built by the same American company that 
was to make one in San Jose, and entitled " The Costa 
Rica Market and Tramway Company." 

The dawn succeeding my arrival in this place I went 
on horseback, two miles southeast, to the Aguas Calientes, 
or Hot Springs. They are in the valley below Cartago, 



38 CENTRAL AMERICA, 

just at the edge of a small river. A large brick hotel, 
with plenty of bathrooms, was in process of building. 
One large spring rises, boiling, directly from the rock. A 
huge cistern was built around it, and another one stood at 
a short distance above it, so as to have a necessary supply 
and pressure for the baths. The uncouth bath tubs were 
of brick and plaster. The water had a soft, agreeable 
taste, sulphur and iron predominating. It is much used, 
both internally and externally, and is said to be excellent 
for rheumatism and skin diseases. It resembles the cele- 
brated Hot Springs of Arkansas. The hotel is to be 
named " Bella Vista," very appropriately, since it will 
command a magnificent view, including the volcano of 
Irazu, ten miles distant. Between Cartago and Aguas 
Calientes are the coffee estates of Senor Troyo, a rich 
planter. They constitute one of the finest plantations in 
Costa Eica. I made a thorough inspection of the entire 
place — beneficio, as it is called. In front of the two- 
story house stood curious statues, representing native In- 
dians. Seflor Troyo is an enthusiastic collector of Indian 
antiquities, and in his Cartago residence has a complete 
and rare collection. The plantation extends several miles 
along the valley, a road passing between the high walls of 
glossy green coSee-bushes, above which wave the banana 
fronds. Occasionally this road was lined with orange 
trees, among whose branches hung hundreds of those 
" globes in old gold." Nearly in the center of the planta- 
tion were the factories, the shelling and cleaning ma- 
chines, and the patios, or great washing and drying ba- 




A Costa Rican Owl. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 39 

sins. The machinery is turned by water. The buildings 
in general are provided with every necessary mechanical 
appliance of American manufacture. The basins, cov- 
ered with cement, where the cofEee is washed and dried, 
occupy several acres. Every part of the process may be 
inspected, from the place where the coffee is grown a,nd 
picked to where it is packed in sacks and sent by rail 
and cart to the coast. The adjoining hills afford shoot- 
ing—deer, ducks, and doves, being the few varieties. 
The neighboring scenery is remarkably fine, while the 
altitude of a mile mitigates the noontide heat and 
makes the night available for sleep. Irazu may be 
ascended to the rim of the crater on horse or mule. A 
descent into the crater is more arduous than danger- 
ous. The trip up Irazu is frequently made in the dry 
season. From the summit, on a clear day, both oceans 
may be seen. The neighboring volcano, Turrialba, ten 
miles distant, as the crow flies, is much steeper, and has 
been seldom ascended. Irazu is dead, but Turrialba 
smokes a little. 

On returning to San Jose I attended an exhibition 
drill of a local company of troops opposite the President's 
palace. The parade and manoeuvres took place at eleven, 
Sunday morning, and were witnessed by the President and 
his ministers from the windows of his palace and by 
crowds of citizens in the streets. The exhibition con- 
sisted of the manual-of-arms (including bayonet practice 
without commands, and both with and without the music 
of the band), skirmish drill and blank-cartridge firing, and 



40 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

artillery drill with four little six-pound guns. There 
were thirty-eight men in the band, and thirty-five men, 
or rather boys, in the company ! The former were seated 
in a row against the barrack wall, and played a great va- 
riety of waltzes. If I said they threw their souls into it, I 
should mean they knew the pieces by heart, and if I spoke 
of their playing from memory, I should mean that they 
executed more by faith than by sight. The soldiers were 
barefoot, the officers booted — and there were almost as 
many boots as bare feet. The evolutions were good with 
the exception of the marching, which was spoiled by the 
troops not keeping step. The variety of the evolutions 
smacked of many foreign countries, with a dash of native 
originality. The day was typically Spanish- American — 
mass in the early morning, then a military parade, next 
promenading and visiting in gala costume, finally, the 
theatre in the evening. 

On the afternoon of October 19th we left San Jose for 
the seacoast and Punta Arenas, taking the train at five 
for Alajuela. There we spent the night, proceeding on 
our journey by horse and mule the following morning. 
Mules, owing to their greater scarcity, are more expensive 
to buy or hire in Costa Rica than horses. The average 
horse is very small, being hardly larger than a Saint 
Bernard dog. The mules, on the contrary, are generally 
large and stout, capable of carrying heavy burdens for 
long distances. The horses have a gentle and comfort- 
able amble. They are almost always badly bowed in the 
hindlegs, owing to early overloading. The heads are very 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 41 

small, are accompanied with small ears, and look out of 
proportion to the body. 

We breakfasted at Atenas, and stopped for the night 
at a private house about two hours' ride from San Mateo. 
The house was unfortunately destitute of edibles, but next 
morning we made a glorious feast with some milkless 
coffee, which was as welcome to us as Tanner's peach to 
him at the end of his forty days' fast. We reached 
Esparta about 2 p. m., the rain not being nearly so heavy 
as on the previous afternoon. The road, however, had 
been very steep and boggy, full of holes, and intersected 
with several small streams made dangerous by rapids. 
Passing the night at the Frenchman's excellent hotel, we 
reached Punta Arenas at nine the next morning, and 
waited for the steamer which was to take us to Corinto, 
Nicaragua, two hundred and sixty- two miles distant. 
This steamer makes but one stoppage — at San Juan del 
Sur, one hundred and fifty-six miles from Punta Arenas. 
When we went on board, on the 23d, she proved to be a 
small steamer of about fifteen hundred tons. A dozen 
nationalities were represented among her crew and stew- 
ards. The cooks were Chinese; the waiters Peruvians, 
Colombians, Guatemalans, Costa Eicans. Among the 
officers and crew were Americans, Englishmen, Mexicans, 
Scotch, Germans, Irish, etc. We left at midnight with a 
full list of passengers, who were bound for various ports 
in Central America, Mexico, and the upper Pacific coast. 
We were soon steaming off the northwestern coast of 
Costa Eica, the wooded hills of the province of Nicoya 



42 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

and Guanacaste showing smooth outlines with occasional 
rocky cliffs descending to the ocean's edge. No sign of 
habitation was visible. To the northeast could be seen 
the lofty peaks of Orosi, five thousand two hundred feet 
high. After a while the hills became more bare, as if 
composed of lava. Volcano cones came more clearly into 
view, and the connecting ridges grew sharper and steeper. 
Along the coast were many odd-shaped islands, some with 
well-nigh perfect arches hewed through their cliffs by that 
fantastic architect, the sea. One of these islands was ex- 
actly like a double-turreted monitor. Another counter- 
feited a small brig under full sail. A third revealed the 
crater of an extinct volcano peering hungrily above the 
water. These were the last islands we saw as we bade 
farewell to the Costa Rican shores, just previous to being 
struck by a strong head-wind, which generally awaits the 
traveler as he rounds the point of St. Elena. It probably 
comes from the great lake of Nicaragua, which is twelve 
miles distant by land from that point, and blows over the 
split hills, whose occasional land-slides betoken volcanic 
formation. 



2. NICARAGUA. 

San Juan del Sur is the southernmost port of Nica- 
ragua on the Pacific. It is a small village near the edge 
of a little semi-circular bay, which affords good anchorage 
for a large steamer, but not for many at a time. The 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 43 

hills are not two hundred feet high, and npon one of 
them, at the southern entrance, is a low lighthouse. 
About twenty miles to the north is the insignificant port 
of Brito, whence the proposed Nicaraguan ship-canal is 
to be cut to Rivas, on the great lake. From here north- 
west to Corinto the hills are monotonously even and low, 
and the nearest coast regions are almost a level plain. At 
daylight on the morning of the 25th we sighted the 
string of volcanoes named Los Marabios, or the Marvels, 
fourteen in number, extending from Lake Managua north- 
west to the Gulf of Fonseca, which, while it washes the 
limited southwestern shore of Honduras, separates the 
northwestern point of Nicaragua from the southeastern 
point of Salvador. Of the volcano range just mentioned, 
the famous and now smoking Momotombo forms the 
southern, and Viejo, back of Corinto, constitutes one of 
the highest and most notable summits of the northern 
end. A fac simile of " The Marvels " is stamped upon 
the Nicaraguan silver coins, and forms part of the national 
coat-of-arms. The sides and summits of these volcanoes 
are lava, and myriad streaks of brown and white, some 
higher, some lower, run into the forests that circle the 
bases and fringe the acclivities. Most of these eminences 
have sharp conic outlines, and vary in height from two 
thousand to six thousand five hundred feet above the sea. 
The foreground is low and level. About half-way be- 
tween Corinto and Lake Managua it gives locality to the 
city of Leon, the largest in Nicaragua. A narrow-gauge 
railroad connects those two points. To the south the 



44 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

land was so low as to be invisible from the steamer. The 
long, broken line of the Marabios, blue and clear cut in 
the early morning light, was very beautiful. Some of the 
summits were lightly cloud-capped. The valleys, too, 
were filled with fleecy masses, like foam without a sea. 
The reader must bear in mind that while these repeated 
observations were being taken we had sailed away from 
San Juan del Sur, and were now entering the harbor of 
Corinto, which occupies a point on the coast in the north- 
west part of Nicaragua. From this position the sides of 
Vie jo were seen, smooth, steep, and brown, and the crater 
distinctly outlined. 

Corinto is a miserable little village, situated upon a 
low island just separated from the mainland. It has a 
small but good harbor, deep enough to accommodate a 
large steamer at anchor within a stone's throw of the 
shore. Cargo is taken to land in a great lighter, rowed 
by eight or ten men with huge paddles. In the center of 
the street which faces the harbor is a two-story building, 
surrounded with a veranda on both stories and used as 
a custom-house on the first floor, and as barracks on the 
second. On each side are buildings used by merchants, 
consuls, and consular agents. A little distance back is 
the railway station, whence two trains are dispatched 
daily to the interior. One at noon goes through to Lake 
Managua in four hours, where a boat may be taken very 
early in the morning for Managua, the present capital. 
It is connected by rail with Masaya and Granada, the 
only other large towns. At 3 P. M. each day a train 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 45 

goes as far as Leon, about half the distance to Lake 
Managua. 

The people of Corinto are very dark, betraying 
strongly their Indian extraction. The principal hotel is 
a large, rambling, single-story shed — it deserves no better 
name — roughly divided into stalls. All Corinto swarms 
with mosquitoes. It is the chief port of Nicaragua, and 
at certain seasons of the year, as, for instance, when coffee 
is carried to market, it is much crowded. When I was 
there the harbor contained but one vessel, a small Ger- 
man bark. The locality is sandy, and cocoanut trees 
abound. Upon the broad, smooth beach the lighters are 
run, and the freight is transferred to the shoulders of 
half-naked men to be put in the warehouses. The minia- 
ture market contained little but an assortment of fruits 
and flowers. The latter are becomingly worn in the hair 
of all the women. Near the lighthouse, which stands on 
an island just off Corinto, is an ordinary wooden building 
extravagantly placed. It is built over a small excavation 
on the edge of a rocky cliff, and the excavation contains 
one old-fashioned gun mounted upon a "block" gun- 
carriage. From one of the windows of the house peeps 
the barrel of a smaller cannon. If these guns are in- 
tended only to fire salutes, their arrangement is singular, 
to say the least ; but if they are meant for defense, no 
humorist could do them justice or injustice. 

We left Corinto at noon for Momotombo, at the head 
of Managua Lake. The railway is narrow-gauge, and its 
equipment is North American. The engines come from 



46 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

Baldwin's factory, Philadelphia, and the cars from Troy, 
New York. Upon the Nicaraguan as upon the Costa 
Eican railways, baggage must be paid for. One excep- 
tion is on the railway from Managua to Granada, where 
twenty-five pounds are allowed free. This would not be 
much for a foreigner, but it should be remembered that 
in that climate the natives do not have many clothes or 
"personal effects." There are two classes of cars — the 
first-class having transverse seats, and the second-class 
parallel wooden benches. We had only a few passengers 
of the former class, but many of the latter. Among them 
the women were noticeable for their embroidered white 
chemises and gay-colored skirts, their jet-black hair 
braided and coiled upon the back of the head, and 
always prettily adorned with flowers. Dark, lustrous eyes 
illuminated smooth, olive complexions. The plump- 
ness of these handsome women rendered them addi- 
tionally pleasant to the view, while their constant chat- 
ting and laughter made them seem almost like happy 
xhildren. 

Once in the cars we crossed from Corinto to the main 
land on a long bridge, supported on iron posts, which 
conducted us southeast to Chinandega, a spread-out place, 
with long, straight streets, and houses mostly concealed 
by dense foliage. We stopped but little until we reached 
Leon, thirty-five miles from Corinto. The general char- 
acter of the country through which we had passed was 
level, covered with a scrub-forest. It was thinly settled 
and sparsely cultivated, the principal products being ba- 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 47 

nanas, corn, beans, and sugar-cane. The fences were 
generally " live," made out of wild pineapple. A peculiar 
kind of cactus was also thus employed, its round stems 
placed close together well suiting it for that purpose. 
Much of the land was carpeted with coarse grass, and a 
goodly number of cattle were browsing thereon. On the 
north side all the way to Lake Managua we had a clear 
view of Los Marabios, their streaks of gray sand and 
brown lava being well defined. In the forests were clouds 
of beautiful butterflies, but scarcely any birds. The sta- 
tion at Leon is a great shed. The town, like the others, 
is much veiled by verdure. From here to Momotombo, a 
distance of twenty-two miles, we ran through a much 
heavier and thicker forest, devoid of settlements. It took 
us four hours to go fifty-seven miles. There is some talk 
of continuing the railway from Momotombo, along the 
western shore of the lake to Managua, the capital, a dis- 
tance of about forty miles. At present connection is only 
by steamer. Momotombo is an insignificant cluster of 
native huts, among which are conspicuous two small ho- 
tels, the railway station, and a long pier projecting into 
the lake. At the end of the pier are a little iron steamer 
for passengers, and a little wooden schooner for freight. 
Both go to Managua, four hours distant, down the lake. 
The town of Momotombo is notable for nothing save the 
picturesque beauty of its situation. To the east, and just 
across one of the heads of the lake, rises, to the height of 
fifty-two hundred feet, the symmetrical cone of the vol- 
cano Momotombo, always smoking and sometimes erupt- 



48 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

ive. The cone is more perfect than that of the celebrated 
Ootopaxi. It is smoother and sharper. The sides, one 
third the distance up, are densely covered with trees. 
Then come coarse grass, scoriae, sand, and lava. These 
continue to the edge of the crater, whence the smoke 
sometimes ascends in an almost straight line, though it is 
often wind-blown into curves and spirals. The lake is 
dull-green, stirred by a strong south wind. As I sat upon 
the piazza of a neighboring hotel I could see the short, 
swiftly-succeeding waves beat on the fine sand of the 
black beach almost as fiercely as the storm-driven billows 
of the sea itself. The rapid roar and splash first delayed, 
then hastened sleep. 

My first impression of Momotombo remains vivid. 
The afternoon was showery. Dark and heavy clouds 
alternated with a clear blue sky. In the foreground fret- 
ted the lake, yellowish-green in its general color, but 
crested with white-caps. Near by stood the forest, darkly 
verdant. Far to the right rose Momotombito, a small 
volcano, constituting an island by itself "with verdure 
clad" almost to its diminutive summit. Farther on in 
the same direction were the low hills of the western shore. 
To the north were the sandy volcanoes named Pilas and 
Asossoca. In rugged majesty, as though to gaze upon the 
spectacle of which it was itself a part, rose the mighty 
Momotombo, emitting smoke - wreaths from its naked 
crater, and casting the spell of weirdness over all that 
was lovely and romantic. Small time was allotted me 
for this unalloyed enjoyment. Clouds obscured the 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 49 

crown of Momotombo, a murky veil descended, and the 
character of the scene was changed. 

It is said that Momotombo has never been ascended, 
owing to its steepness and the yielding nature of its soil. 
But the crater tips toward the east, and upon that side 
much lava has been thrown out, together with stones 
and scoriae, so that there, at least, one could find a foot- 
ing, though a precarious one. For at least half the dis- 
tance progress would have to be arduously made through 
a path, which, if not already made by the lumbermen, 
would have to be cut by one's own machete, or hatchet. 
Of course, this could not be done in one day. The night 
would have to be passed upon the side of the volcano, 
and the work continued at sunrise. Once having com- 
pleted the ascent, the descent could be effected the same 
day. About a year and a half ago lava ran down the east- 
ern face of this volcano and fell thickly upon a neighbor- 
ing town and into the lake. Hot stones were hurled high 
in air, the burning lava jets were particularly grand, and 
the reflection of the fire upon the clouds was Vesuvian 
in splendor. The eruption probably came from the bot- 
tom of one large central crater. The summit of the vol- 
cano is, in reality, perforated like a pepper-box lid, and 
emits steam and smoke from numerous orifices. Only 
about ten persons had the courage to remain in the 
neighborhood of this volcano during the outburst just 
described. Ashes like coarse sand fell in farm-houses 
twenty miles distant. Upon its sides, about a third of 
the distance up, are some sulphur springs, and near the 



50 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

surface of the lake are fountains of the boiling variety. 
At the foot of this volcano lives a man who keeps a 
cattle ranch. The only other Nicaraguan volcano at 
present active, or smoking to any extent, is Ometepe, 
on an island of the same name — the largest island in 
Lake Nicaragua. 

The train from Corinto arrives at about 4.30 p. m., but 
the boat for Managua does not leave until five the follow- 
ing morning. It was at that hour that we departed in 
the little iron-screw steamer of fifty tons burden, the dis- 
tance to be sailed being thirty-five miles. We passed 
close to Momotombito. The color of the lake was a dirty 
green. The navigation is everywhere good. Sometimes 
the depth is as great as one hundred and fifty feet. Good 
fish abound, particularly carp. Besides two steamers, a 
schooner, and some lighters and canoes, no native craft 
ply to and fro. The western shore is low, wooded, and 
but little diversified. Upon the eastern shore extends a 
long range of high, peaked mountains whose craters be- 
tray their volcanic nature. These mountains are woody 
below and grassy above. As we sailed away from Momo- 
tombo we had a clear view of a large round hole near the 
summit of the volcano Pilas, which is variously said to be 
bottomless and to be six hundred feet in depth. The 
volcano is probably extinct. Near the center of the lake 
is found the point of a long peninsula projecting from 
its western side. Having rounded this, one or two of the 
larger buildings of Managua appeared ; but so depressed 
is the situatioii of the town, so low are the houses, and so 



CENTRAL AMEEICA. 51 

dense is the foliage, that but little can be distinguished 
until one is very near. A large, oblong, curiously shaped 
hill rises in the background. It is covered with pasture, 
and conducts to a range of hills beyond, which, in turn, 
are in part cultivated, and in part occupied by forest and 
meadow. At the right I saw the white walls of what 
proved to be the two-storied School of Arts and Trades — 
the most capacious building in the city, as viewed from 
the lake. To the left were seen the crater-like summit 
of Masaya, the massive flanks of Mombacha, and the 
sharp cone of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua. Along the 
beach were groups of semi-nude washerwomen, pound- 
ing clothes with their usual button-wrenching reckless- 
ness. At last we landed at a long pier, from which 
about every third plank had been removed. Several 
dilapidated hacks and lugubrious-looking horses were in 
waiting. As I passed through the town I observed that 
it was laid out with considerable regularity, though not 
at right angles. The houses were of mud. The streets 
were unpaved and of soft, sandy soil. There were no 
continuous sidewalks. The four drug stores I passed 
in quick succession indicated insalubrity. The grand 
plaza was anything but grand, with its uncut paths, its 
coarse grass two feet long, and its irregular rows of small 
mango trees. On one side stood the cathedral, by 
courtesy so called, with a fagade of cut stone at once 
half completed and half dilapidated. On another side 
was the Government Palace. It covered an entire square, 
and contained the Halls of Congi'ess, the President's resi- 



52 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

dence, miscellaneous Government offices, and a library of 
some three thousand volumes, mostly Spanish. A part 
of the Government Palace was of stone — a sort of coarse, 
volcanic rock, which may be easily taken from its bed 
with an axe, but which hardens when exposed to the ele- 
ments. 

The Hotel Nacional, kept by an American, was near. 
The court was full of trees and flowers. The breakfast 
table was set in one of the lower corridors. The rooms 
up-stairs were formed largely of Venetian blinds, and 
contained hammocks, each of which seemed to hold a 
lounger. Bird cages were suspended from the roof of the 
.corridor, and trailing vines shut out the sun and a little 
of the air. Each bed-room contained from three to six 
beds. Natives like this way of herding together. They 
seem to have a superstitious dread of sleeping alone. Total 
strangers — men with men and women with women — are 
invariably companioned in this free and easy manner, and 
robbery is almost never perpetrated. If you wish a room 
to yourself in a hotel where other guests are staying, you 
must pay extra. All the beds have heavy cloth mosquito 
protectors, for mosquitoes are as intolerable in Nicaragua 
as fleas are in Costa Rica. The bottoms of the beds are 
generally canvas or crossed cords, upon which cool straw 
mats are laid, and then one sheet and perhaps a very 
light sort of blanket. At breakfast I made my first ac- 
quaintance with a very popular native drink-^oalled tiste 
in that part of the country. It is made out of maize, 
ground and parched, and chocolate, mixed with sugar 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 53 

and cold water, and served in thin calabashes of the size 
of ordinary tumblers. The calabashes are oblong, and 
preserve their balance by means of little wooden stands. 
They are often elaborately carved, and sometimes cost 
several dollars apiece. In a hotel it is the work of one 
woman to prepare the tiste for use at meals. The ma- 
terial is made into a long roll, like a sausage, the maize 
inside, and is thickly coated with chocolate. Pieces are 
broken into a gourd, sugar and water are added, the 
mixture is stirred into a thick foam, and is then served. 
The taste savors of both corn and chocolate, and is rather 
insipid, though thirst- quenching. The drink is not fer- 
ment, and answers as a refreshment merely. Natives use 
it in place of coffee. Sometimes you will be asked which 
you prefer — coffee or tiste? 

In Managua I found it exceedingly hot during the 
day, but cool and comfortable at night. Showers are 
frequent, but brief and light. The streets are fairly well 
illuminated by kerosene lamps. In the center of the 
plaza was a wooden orchestra stand, octagonal in form 
and Moorish in style. On other sides of the plaza were 
barracks for infantry and artillery. A fine large building 
was being erected for the troops stationed in the capital. 
Near by was the picturesque little station of the railway 
that goes to Granada. The latter is larger and more im- 
portant than Managua. So likewise is Leon. Granada 
and Leon have always been jealous of each other, each 
being anxious to become the capital. To evade the di- 
lemma Managua was chosen. It has rapidly developed 



54 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

from a population of two thousand to one five times as 
large. The market-house occupies an entire square. It 
is a one-story building, as, indeed, are almost all the 
buildings of that place, on account of the frequency o! 
severe earthquake shocks. At the corners the white walls 
are ornamented in plaster, above the entrances, with the 
republic's coat-of-arms. A vast variety of products is 
displayed, often incongruously grouped on the same stall. 
Things to eat and things to wear are in this queer juxta- 
position. Most of the sellers are women — many of them 
pretty, dressed in gay-colored skirts and white low-cut 
chemises, with roses and other bright flowers stuck in 
their raven braids. As before hinted, Managua has no 
fine public buildings. It is simply an extensive village. 
Foreigners are few. They are engaged in business, and 
are chiefly German and American. Only one newspaper 
is published — a sort of weekly ofiicial gazette. The silver 
dollars of Peru and Chili circulate at their full value here, 
as in all the other Central American states. There is no 
gold in circulation in Costa Eica, Nicaragua, or Hon- 
duras ; and but little paper money in Nicaragua, and none 
in Honduras. 

One day we rode out in a carriage to a little lake, 
named Tiscopa, half a mile west of the city. Several 
such lakes are in the vicinity, and all of them seem to 
occupy the craters of extinct volcanoes. Many of them 
contain fish good for eating. They are unconnected on 
the surface, and have no apparent inlet or outlet. Their 
water is dark-green and very deep. Lake Tiscopa lies a 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 55 

hundred feet below the surface of the surrounding coun- 
try. It is circular in form. Its sides are steep hills 
covered with fine trees. In the early morning many of 
the men of the city go there for a refreshing swim. It is 
also the headquarters of numerous washerwomen, whose 
plump and dusky figures, bare to the waist, may be seen 
in every direction, near the shore. They usually stand 
nearly up to the middle in the water, facing the land, 
and pounding, soaping, rubbing, and rinsing the clothes 
on oblong blocks of lava- rock, in many of which are worn 
deep holes. 

Managua is a rather dead sort of town. You never 
see so many people or such bustle in the streets as at San 
Jose. The railway thence to Granada is thirty miles in 
length. It is a narrow-gauge, with toy-like cars made 
in Central America, though the locomotives come from 
Baldwin's factory at Philadelphia. This road, like the 
one from Corinto to Momotombo, was not difficult to 
construct, there being no deep cuts or high fillings. In 
fact, the big lakes of Nicaragua are only about one hun- 
dred and thirty feet above sea-level. There are only 
four large towns in point of population — Leon, Granada, 
Managua, and Masaya. None of the cities of Central 
America are seaports, and the majority are located upon 
the higher and more healthy valleys and table-lands of 
the interior, from three thousand to five thousand feet 
above the ocean. Those I have mentioned are exceptions. 
The first three are about two hundred feet above sea- 
level ; Masaya nearly four times that altitude. A small 



56 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

river, the Tipitapa, flows from Lake Managua into Lake 
Nicaragua, but owing to rapids is not navigable. By the 
way, Lake Nicaragua is here called Lake Granada. The 
town of that name is located at its northwestern ex- 
tremity. Managua is at the southwestern end of Lake 
Managua. The connecting railway passes through an 
uninteresting country covered with scraggy forests, but 
thinly cleared and peopled. Maize, sugar-cane, tobacco, 
and beans are all that are cultivated. Half-way across 
you see the large crater of the volcano Masaya, now ex- 
tinct. Not far distant is a long, narrow lake, near which 
stands Masaya, the only town of any importance on the 
road. It being Sunday, the station there was full of 
people in gala dress, laughing, gossiping, and promenad- 
ing with true dolce far nieiite light-heartedness. The 
black hair of the senoritas shone with cocoanut oil, and 
their necks were hung with strings of pearl or chains of 
dark-yellow gold. A large proportion (with the lower 
classes, at least) was of French gilt. Sparkling stones 
resembling diamonds palpitated in their ears, and rings 
adorned nearly every finger. Their dresses were festooned 
with lace and scarfs, white satin slippers shod their feet, 
while an occasional cigar sensuously puffed smoke from 
their ruby lips, and sent up fragile spirals of mist. At 
the ends of the platform were vistas of palms, bananas, 
and oranges, and the ensemble thus formed would be 
worth being painted by many of our artists who go to 
Algiers and Morocco in vain. 

As we neared Granada station we perceived that it 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 57 

was some distance from the town, which does not lie im- 
mediately upon the lake. Primitive hacks abound, and 
are cheap. The massive volcano of Mombacho stands a 
little lower down on the lake shore, to the right, and rises 
four thousand five hundred and eighty- eight feet. Still 
farther down the lake is seen distinctly the beautiful sharp 
cone of Ometepe, smoking, and about twice as active 
as it used to be. It stands on an island of the same 
name. Ometepe is a little over a mile high, and is still 
steeper and sharper than Momotombo. From Granada 
steamers run twice monthly down the lake and the San 
Juan River to Greytown on the Caribbean. At San 
Carlos, the beginning of the San Juan River, the lake 
steamer is exchanged for a smaller, the only one which 
can navigate the river's shallows and intricacies. From 
the station we drove along an unpaved street with discon- 
nected sidewalks, their levels varying with various houses. 
The principal hotel, at which we halted, resembled a 
storage-warehouse rather than an inn. We were shown 
into a room forty feet by thirty, the ridge-pool of the roof 
being quite thirty feet above our heads. The floor was 
paved with square bricks. The doors were six feet by 
fifteen in size. The walls were three feet thick. 'No 
light could be admitted excepting by the doors, there 
being no windows. Six beds and two hammocks met the 
undelighted eye — and now we almost thought we were in 
a hospital. My companion was presently bitten by a 
scorpion, which we killed by way of retribution. The 

table where we took our meals was set in the inner cor- 
5 



58 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

ridor, one third of whicli was swept by the rain-storms. 
Upon going to bed we resigned ourselves philosophically 
to the combined attacks of fleas and mosquitoes. Mark 
Tapleys only should travel in Central America. 

Granada lies upon ground gently sloping toward the 
lake. The rainfall is so heavy that, the unpaved streets 
being very doughy, it is necessary to terrace them. The 
terraces are connected by slopes paved smoothly with 
enormous blocks of stone so as to be passable for car- 
riages. The city is regularly laid out, though not at right 
angles. The houses are built upon levels which are 
higher than the roadways, so that the latter are always 
two or three feet below the level of the sidewalks. These 
are often neatly paved with white and black stone of local 
manufacture. The city is lighted by kerosene lamps. 
The stores and dwellings are much grander than those of 
Managua. More wealth and culture abound. From the 
top of the square tower of the old church of La Merced, 
the first church in Granada at present, a fine view may 
be obtained of the city, the lake, and the surrounding 
country. There are no imposing public or private build- 
ings. The view is simply that of a monotonous range of 
red and brown tile peaked roofs, to which a very tropic 
appearance is given by the appearance, here and there, in 
courts and back yards, of cocoanut-palms, breadfruits, 
mangoes, and bananas. The edge of the town is fringed 
with grass-roof huts ; then comes the intensely green for- 
est. In the south rises Mombacho, wooded to very nearly 
the summit. Upon the east lies the great lake, its diversi- 



N^' % , '• 




.V ' 




study of Ferns. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 59 

fied and indented shores clearly defined. To the south- 
east appears the beautiful cone of Ometepe. For more 
than a century this volcano was quiet, but during the last 
few years it has been turbulent — so much so on one occa- 
sion as nearly to destroy the town at its base. But hu- 
man nature is the same in this respect as at the time of 
the flood, and when one is taken and the other left, the 
next generation seems to think it also may get left — 
though in a manner happier than that implied by the 
slang of the period. The low crater of Masaya is found 
to the northwest, but Momotombo is not visible. The 
grand plaza contains the begun cathedral and present 
barracks on one side, the market on another, and stores 
on the third. In the center is what may some time be a 
park. At present it contains uncut grass and a dry 
fountain. A few small trees have been set out. Opposite 
the hotel is an old stone gateway, dating from the time 
of the Spanish viceroys. Lions are carved on the fa9ade, 
and its former owner's coat-of-arms over the gate. Other 
antiquities are the old Indian stone gods and earthenware 
implements and ornaments. Eaves project over the side- 
walks, and protect from rain. Stores and dwellings are 
but one story, and the walls are of white stucco. The 
ledges of the enormous windows reach over the sidewalk 
like consoles, and are protected by semi - circular ii'on 
gratings sometimes elaborately carved. This arrange- 
ment allows the inmates to look out into the street in 
both directions^--an opportunity enjoyed to the utmost by 
the gentler sex. The people generally are very inquisi- 



60 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

tive about the appearance and doings not only of foreign- 
ers but of each other also. Their talk is vapid and idle. 
True criticism is lost sight of beneath trivial gossip and 
personalities. They are not readers^ and perhaps some 
allowance is to be made for them on account of their 
being shut in from much knowledge of the great world. 
In walking through the streets I observed that here the 
pigs disputed the offal with the vultures, those ubiquitous 
scavengers of Central and South American cities. If it 
were not for these animals, pestilence would result. 

The commodious University of Granada is built in the 
usual quadrangular style, about an open court-yard. The 
"Museo" contains a small collection in natural history 
and archaeology. The display of native antiquities did 
no justice to the interest of the subject and the resources 
at command. The small and not very interesting library 
was in fine red morocco bindings. The chemical labora- 
tory was well furnished, but apparently not much used. 
The college has one hundred and twenty students — or 
had, at that time. They sleep in one long dormitory, the 
beds arranged hospital-wise. In all Nicaragua but one 
daily newspaper is published, and that is in Granada. It 
is called El Diario Nicaragliense. Its dimensions are 
thirty inches by twenty-four. It contains cablegrams 
and local news ; but the latter not being marvelous, the 
lower third of the first two pages is occupied by a 
feuilleton, or foUetin, as the Spanish say. The paper sells 
for ten cents per copy, or twelve dollars per year. The 
heads of advertisements are often very sensational, hav- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 61 

ing nothing to do with the things advertised — a fashion 
which prevails, alas ! elsewhere than in Nicaragua. 

The vast difference in temperature at day and at 
night does not prevent abundant vegetation. At night 
a blanket is generally comfortable, though during the 
daytime the heat may be intense. The uneducated por- 
tion of the inhabitants do not understand the climate of 
places in the latitude of New York. Accustomed to 
rainfalls at regular intervals, they do not comprehend 
how we get along with our irregular rainfalls, which are 
liable to occur at almost any time. They wonder how it 
is possible to make the sun-dried bricks, of which they 
imagine our houses, as well as their own, are constructed. 
Apropos of this, an American, resident in Nicaragua for 
twenty-five years, told me an amusing story. Being ques- 
tioned by a Nicaraguan on the subject, he replied that 
not only were our edifices of brick and stone, but that 
they were sometimes twelve stories high, and that Broad- 
way was built up solidly on both sides for nearly ten miles. 
This more than satisfied the wondering interlocutor. The 
American congratulated himself on having successfully 
thrown light on a dark subject ; but judge of his amaze- 
ment when he overheard his questioner retailing the 
matter to some cronies, and stigmatizing him as "that 
old fool, Don " ! Another native, not clearly under- 
standing the difference between London and Paris, con- 
cluded, after serious rumination, that the former was like 
Leon, while the French capital resembled Granada ! 

On returning to Managua we took the little steamer 



62 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

for Momotombo. We soon reached the peninsula where 
the extinct crater of Chiltepeque rears itself eight hun- 
dred feet high. The lake was alive with small fish. Oc- 
casionally an alligator sunned himself upon the surface. 
Tufts of vegetation abounded. Upon turning the penin- 
sula we lost sight of Ometepe, but were compensated by 
the view of Momotombo and its little namesake, and the 
gray-yellow cone of Asossoca beyond it to the left. With 
Momotombo I was not less fascinated than at first. Its 
gigantic outline and magnificent evidence of its latent 
power were as weirdly suggestive as ever. I believe that, 
with endurance and pluck, its ascent is possible. We 
brought less stalwart qualities into play, however, by 
dining pleasurably at its base, and then took the train for 
Leon. Eeaching there, we were obliged to trudge on 
foot from the cabless station to the hotel, a large quad- 
rangle of buildings, with very high ceilings, thick walls, 
and doors like those of warehouses. The various corri- 
dors were used for dining-room, "sample-room," cafe, 
billiard - room, and al fresco sitting-rooms. Hempen 
hammocks of many lines were found in every room. 
Each sleeping chamber contained three or four beds. 
Among "extras" on the tarifa appeared the infor- 
mation, " He who wishes a room all to himself shall 
pay by special agreement." Manufactured ice was to 
be had in the cafe and at the bar. Perhaps this helped 
me to conclude that this was the best hotel in the re- 
public. 

Leon is not only the largest city in Nicaragua, but 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 63 

also the ecclesiastical center, and the residence of the 
bishop. It has more churches than Granada, Masaya, 
and Managua combined. On the first morning after our 
arrival I was partially awakened by the crowing of the 
roosters — a universal and intense nuisance in this part 
of the world — and partially by a wonderful chorus of 
bells, compared to which the tintinnabulation celebrated 
by Poe was as nothing. Tinkling, tolling, booming, 
jingling, and jangling were fused into an infernal dis- 
cord which murdered sleep as effectually as Macbeth ever 
did. I will not take an oath on the matter, but there 
appeared to be as many male chickens in Leon as Mark 
Twain estimated there were cats in Honolulu, and his cal- 
culation reached a million. The dogs, also, are a nuisance 
beyond description. They make night hideous with their 
howling, and after they have once awakened you, nothing 
can induce them to let you go to sleep again. However, 
bestowing anathemas right and left, I jumped up, and, 
dressing, started for the cathedral, but in anything but 
a devotional frame. It is a massive structure standing 
on the Grand Plaza, and filling an entire block. On the 
north side stood the two-storied municipal palace, a hand- 
some building. The barracks were on the other side of 
the cross street. Instead of single sentries about a dozen 
soldiers there " mounted guard," to use the technical ex- 
pression. What they were really doing was lolling on a 
bench, their muskets, only half supported, resting on the 
ground. The men were barefoot. A sort of coarse blue 
blouse constituted their attempt at uniform, but in fact 



64 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

the dress differed in each. In some of the rural towns 
the barracks are remarkable. In Momotombo a grass- 
thatched hutch answers that purpose; in another town 
a cafe-restaurant has been brought into requisition, re- 
taining the old sign-board. Upon one side of the plaza 
stood the archiepiscopal palace, a two-story building, 
made of cut stone. Upon the remaining side were the 
post-office, the telegraph office, and some miscellaneous 
tumbledown buildings. The plaza itself was treeless and 
flowerless. The neighboring streets, in which were the 
chief stores, were unpaved and grass-grown. The inte- 
rior of the cathedral — one of the largest in Central 
America — was very plain, but interesting on account of 
its curious old paintings and its carved choir, quaintly 
painted in oddly combined tints. The ceilings are semi- 
circular and the walls are white stucco. From the towers 
you see the city massed together at your feet. Churches, 
large and small, alone break the dull uniformity. The 
country beyond looks superb. The plain whereon the 
city is built slopes gently from the chain of volcanoes on 
the east toward the ocean on the west. Around it stands 
a dense forest of beautiful tropic trees. From the center 
of the city the ocean and the volcano range are equi- 
distant. Asossoca and Momotombo loom in the distance 
like the pyramids, through an atmosphere almost Egyp- 
tian in crystal brightness. All Leon rises but a story 
high, save only the cathedral, whose much-buttressed 
walls show the ravage of earthquake shocks. Thus 
caused was a great crack passing from tower to tower 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 65 

across the center aisle. In several smaller churches I 
observed similar cracks, which had originated in the 
same way. These smaller churches, unlike the cathe- 
dral, are cheap, tawdry, and primitive. In one holy 
water was exposed at three entrances in a china soup- 
basin, in the cover of the soup-basin, and in a wash- 
bowl! 

In one of the shops I was shown that beautiful bird, 
the quetzal, which is to Guatemala what the American 
eagle is to the United States, though I am not aware that 
it ever screams quite as loudly. It is placed upon Guate- 
mala's national escutcheon. It resembles the bird-of- 
paradise met with in the East Indies. The body is as 
large as a pigeon's, and three long, narrow feathers con- 
stitute the tail. The belly is crimson, the wings black, 
and the tail-feathers green and gold — the general eifect of 
these radiant, delicate, and contrastive colors being almost 
iridescent. 

The Central American people are apt to be very polite 
and attentive when it costs them nothing ; on other occa- 
sions they are often selfish, annoying, and even rude. A 
man who will bow to you, or shake hands with you (if 
you will let him) half a dozen times a day, will talk aloud 
and laugh barbarously half the night even though he 
knows that you occupy a room separated from his by only 
a low partition. He will cheat you in a bargain after 
having expressed the greatest interest in your welfare, 
will help himself to the last bit of the choicest morsel 
while drinking your health, and while seeking to impress 



66 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

you with the habits of the good society in which he 
moves will eject upon the floor before you the water with 
which he has just rinsed his mouth — and so on ad 
nauseam. 

On November 5th we went to Corinto and left next 
day by the Pacific Mail steamer for Amapala, sixty-three 
miles distant, the Pacific seaport of Honduras. At six in 
the morning the volcano of Chinandega was still in sight 
and we were nearing the mouth of the Gulf of Fonseca, 
the southern side of which is the Punta Conseguina in 
Nicaragua. The northern side is the Punta de Amapala 
in Salvador, while directly in front of us was the large 
gulf with its many islands. Beyond were the shores and 
the triple and quadruple ranges of Honduras. The head- 
land to the right, upon entering the gulf, was a bluff com- 
ing down directly to the sea, with the barren and broken- 
headed volcano of Conseguina rising a little distance back 
to the height of about four thousand feet. Upon the op- 
posite side was a similar volcano, called Conchagua, and 
far away in the interior of Salvador rose the great vol- 
canic cone of San Miguel, shaped very much like Mo- 
motombo. At the foot of this volcano is the town of San 
Miguel. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 67 



8. HONDURAS. 



The foreground of the coast of Honduras bore a more 
or less level aspect for some distance inland. At first it 
seemed merely a part of a great mangrove swamp. Then 
rose low hills covered with verdure, while beyond were 
seen separated cones and rough, precipitous ranges, bar- 
ren, rocky, and yellow. Evidences of volcanic origin 
abounded. The mountains were diversified and worthy 
the study of an artist looking for new effects. We first 
passed some barren rocks named Farallones, their sides 
worn into vast arches. Then we coasted along large, 
green, conical islands, sprinkled with a few straw-thatched 
huts in half -cleared spots near the sea. The numerously 
indented Gulf of Fonseca accommodates half a dozen of 
these conical islands. The view of Chinandega from the 
north was fully as impressive as from the opposite direc- 
tion. Many small rivers and one large river — the Rio 
Choluteca — feed this expansive gulf. Upon the Cholu- 
teca (called the Rio Grande upon its head waters) stands 
the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. The river is long 
and winding, but navigable only a short distance from its 
mouth. The cone of Tigre Island rose before us. Upon 
its northern side, protected from the great ocean swell, 
stands the little town of Amapala. Tigre Island is so 
called from the number of tigers which were once found 
there. This animal is now found upon the neighboring 
and much more barren island of Sacate Grande. To the 



68 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

west, in the rear of a number of islands, stands the town 
of La Union, in Salvador. Directly ahead, on the main 
land, and near the outlet of the Nacaome River is La 
Brea. Around a point to the eastward is found the sole 
remaining settlement upon the Pacific seaboard of Hon- 
duras, namely, San Lorenzo. La Brea is on the main 
road to the capital, and to this road another one from San 
Lorenzo leads. Through these two places all the imports 
from the Pacific side must enter the country. At Ama- 
pala is the custom-house. Passengers may be transported 
hence, in large sail-boats and canoes, to La Brea in about 
four hours, and in five to San Lorenzo. 

In the roadstead of Amapala were anchored a small 
German bark and one of the little steamers of the Span- 
ish Marquez del Campo line, recently started. The town, 
which is very small, is crowded in between steep hills, 
and is prefaced with a pretty beach of yellow sand. The 
green gulf, the yellow beach, the white town-walls, and 
the lush mountain foliage make a beautiful picture. To 
the right, shaded by cocoanut-palms, stands a white mar- 
ble statue, erected in honor of the famous Honduran 
patriot, Francisco Morazan. It is surrounded by a low 
iron fence, the posts of which are topped with figures 
representing green parrots with red breasts and long tails. 
The invariable barracks next invite the view. At the 
end of a long wharf stands the aduana, or custom-house. 
The front street is shaded by mango and other trees, 
under which, and in the adjoining corridors, near the 
custom-house, the market is held. A few streets back 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 69 

and higher up, in a sort of plaza, is a very quaint church, 
with three towers on a line with the fa9ade. These 
towers are pierced with small green windows, the edifice 
itself being of the whitest white. When I mention the 
large, uncompleted and unused barracks on the extreme 
left, I have indicated all the prominent architectural 
features of Amapala. A few Germans are engaged in 
business there, and several other foreign nationalities are 
represented by consuls and commercial agents. Passen- 
gers are taken ashore in dug-out canoes and sail-boats 
covered with curious awnings, and cargo is rowed in 
large lighters by six or eight men, using rude paddles 
fastened to long poles. The men handle these standing, 
and throw their whole weight upon them. The wharf 
not being in good repair is not used. Boats are run as 
near the shelving beach as possible, and both passengers 
and freight are carried on shore on the boatmen's shoul- 
ders. For ladies chairs are provided, which are carried 
between two men. We landed in the midst of an ani- 
mated scene. A small band from the barracks was on the 
sea-front, playing a lively quickstep — not, as I was pleased 
to observe, the everlasting Boulanger March. A cap- 
tive monkey was swinging from a neighboring veranda. 
Gayly attired market women were chattering and chaffer- 
ing as only those people can. A few foreigners, dressed 
in coolest white, were rushing about in business haste — 
" hustling," I might almost say — just as foreigners do in 
those hot climates until experience has persuaded them 
that it is best to do things slowly. The view from the 



70 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

front street of Amapala is very pretty. Before you is the 
yellow-grassed and irregularly shaped Sacate Grande isl- 
and, and to the left islets aglow with emerald are scat- 
tered in every direction. On the mainland odd and 
broken ridges and peaks rise in terraces. As soon as you 
reach the beach, you notice small houses standing upon 
posts, which are closely connected by stout palings. 
These are not boat houses or lookouts, but bathing 
houses, and sometimes their roofs are frequented in the 
cool of the evening, whenever there happens to be such 
an article about. The water hereabouts is infested with 
sharks. Hence the necessity of the bath-houses. 

We had no difficulty with the custom-house inspectors, 
and made arrangements at once to be taken to the main- 
land, so that we could start immediately by mule for Te- 
gucigalpa, about ninety miles away. Travel was by cart- 
road, described as good, but very dusty in the dry season. 
Just then, at the end of the rainy season, it was tolerable, 
though, of course, somewhat boggy. We wished to tele- 
graph ahead for our mules, but on going to the telegraph 
office, a Government institution, we learned that business 
for the general public was not transacted until noon. 
Eeturning at that hour we were told that the official had 
not yet come back from breakfast, and our telegram was 
not finally dispatched until 1 p. m. The office closes at 
three, so that business hours are exceedingly abbreviated 
at Amapala. It was thought by a resident merchant that 
we would not be able to get mules at La Brea, the most 
frequented point of departure, a small village where there 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 71 

is one hotel, so called. We therefore telegraphed to 
Pespire, a point inland, on the road, to have mules sent 
to San Lorenzo. This was a little further from us, by 
boat, but nearer than La Brea by road. The wind prom- 
ised to be favorable, but it would be necessary to have 
the assistance of the tide also. As a rule, no mules are 
kept at La Brea, since passenger travel to the interior is 
very small. Natives and foreigners living in Honduras 
usually own animals, and therefore are not incommoded 
and delayed like strangers. 

The canoe we hired was hollowed out of a single great 
trunk. The flat bottom and the steep sides rendered it 
pretty stiff. It was more than twenty feet long, and was 
four feet wide. It carried a small sprit- sail, but owing to 
the irregularity of the breeze the men, three sailors and a 
captain, relied greatly upon their oars. Our seats were 
across the bottom of the boat, using the side as a rest for 
our backs. Rowing along the shore of Tigre Island, 
which is now a mass of lava rocks, now a pretty beach of 
smooth sand, we soon got beyond land, and a good breeze 
then wafted us briskly to the northward and to San Lo- 
renzo. We passed splendid views of mountain ridges, vol- 
canoes, and islands. As we neared the mainland we saw 
that it was covered with tall, thin mangrove forests. At 
last we got into a long narrow bay of smooth, dark water. 
The dipping oars stirred up phosphorescent masses, 
which glittered like finest silver. The sun went down in 
a fiery blaze, and afterward the twilight was shot and 
fluted with the most gorgeous tints and shades, reflected 



72 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

over mountain, cloud, and sea. It was quite dark when 
we reached San Lorenzo, and drew our boat up on the 
beach. The place consisted merely of two wicker-sided, 
tile-roofed warehouses, belonging to one of the silver min- 
ing companies of the interior, near Tegucigalpa, and 
partly filled with working material. A few small and 
wretched huts were in the neighborhood — and this was 
San Lorenzo ! It was flat and swampy, and full of mos- 
quitoes, gnats, and fleas. The miserable inhabitants were 
suffering from fever. We found neither food nor accom- 
modation. Hiring a couple of hammocks from one of 
the huts, and hanging them in one of the warehouses, we 
tried, with but small success, to get a little sleep during 
the very hot night. Some of the people were engaged in 
salt manufacture, there being a large heap of very coarse, 
crude salt in one of the sheds. More wretched-looking 
creatures I have rarely seen. A dozen of both sexes, and 
several generations, live in one small room, the sides of 
which are made of twisted sticks. They possess almost 
no domestic utensils. Their fireplaces are simply oblong 
holes in the top of a pile of stone and mud, with a smaller 
connecting hole, used as a draught, below. A pot, a tin 
pan, an earthen jug, and a gourd, complete the kitchen 
outfit. Their food consists of corn made into tortillas, or 
thin, half-baked cakes. Their few clothes are filthy. 
They are very ignorant, very lazy, but quite hospitable — 
that is for a " gratificaciony They are good-natured and 
lively, and this, in fact, seems to be the case with the low- 
er classes of mestizoes all over Central and South America. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 73 

Our telegram was forwarded to a man at Pespire, 
whose business it was to expedite travelers and luggage 
upon the road. Pespire is twenty miles from San Lo- 
renzo. The dispatch haying been sent at 1 p. m., as pre- 
viously stated, we had expected to find our mules await- 
ing us, or, at least, had expected they would arrive ere 
midnight. Imagine our surprise at being told that we 
need not expect them before to-morrow noon, or, more 
probably, three or four in the afternoon ! Thus it is with 
everything in maftana (to-morrow) land. Time is the 
solitary article with which the people seem well supplied. 

They call it ninety miles from La Brea to Teguci- 
galpa, and a little less from San Lorenzo. The general 
direction is northeast. As soon as our mules arrived, at 3 
p. M., we started for Pespire. The animals were small 
and tough. Mine was about as large as a St. Bernard. 
A good one is purchasable for twenty- five dollars ; a good 
horse for ten dollars. Our mozo, or servant, went ahead 
on mule-back. Our arriero, or muleteer, went on foot 
driving our pack-mule. This man was dressed in cotton 
shirt and drawers, with an enormous straw hat. A huge 
machete was strapped to his waist. An iron cup com- 
pleted his outfit. Calabash trees abounded amid the 
scrubby timber of the poor pasture-land. We passed 
many fine oxen and cows, most of them for home con- 
sumption. We met few travelers but many mule trains 
bound for the coast, to take goods thence to the mines. 
A good road, I should have said, extends from San Lo- 
renzo to the capital. It is traversed by carts in the dry 



74 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

season; by mules at other times. The latter mode re- 
quires two and a half or three days. For freight by cart 
a week is required. The country is so rough and hilly 
that a railway could be built only at great expense, if at 
all. Hours ere we expected to reach Pespire the rain fell 
in torrents ; it grew quite dark, and we sought shelter for 
the night in the first hut — a miserable building, twenty 
feet square, surrounded by a fence in which were corralled 
cattle. The sides of the hut were made of the slender 
limbs of trees, sometimes two inches apart. Rain and 
mosquitoes came in. There was no window, and the door 
was narrow. The owner was rich only in cattle and in 
his fields of maize and plantain. The floor was of earth. 
A fire burned in one corner among some stones, which 
sustained a kettle and a tin pot. A few cups and earth- 
en bowls completed the utensils. There was no chimney, 
but the smoke found egress through very open sides. 
Three bedsteads were each covered with a network of 
hide, and this again with an ox-skin and a blanket. A 
hammock was also present. Tables and chairs were ab- 
sent. Meals were eaten from a shelf. Fifty odoriferous 
cheeses adorned the rafters above. Maize in the husk 
was heaped up. Articles for manufacturing cheese com- 
pleted the equipment. Chickens, pigs, and dogs entered 
ad liUtu7n. Here we passed the night in company with 
the man, his wife, two grown-up daughters, two small 
boys, and a baby. The family behaved kindly to us, and 
we distributed ourselves as circumspectly as we could in 
such narrow quarters. Ten human beings, four dogs. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 75 

twelve chickens, three pigs, and innumerable insects wore 
the weary night away. We went to bed supperless. At 
breakfast we had corn-cakes, cheese, and bad coffee — and 
were glad to get that. We left at daybreak, and reached 
Pespire at 9 A. m. 

Pespire is a small village grouped about a plaza which 
has the regulation church, with white dome. We break- 
fasted at a private house, there being no hotel. Our next 
objective point was Sahara Grande, much of the road 
toward which was lined with flowers of the morning-glory 
and honeysuckle type. The passing natives greeted us 
with "^<^iOs," meaning both "How do you do?" and 
" Good-bye," as well as " A pleasant journey to you." 
The woods abounded with gay-colored birds, the road and 
river banks with brilliant butterflies. The wretched vil- 
lage, San Antonio de Elores, was on our left, and the 
river Moramulco showed its bed to be full of rocks and 
slippery stones. A scow, we noticed, is used for travel- 
ers and merchandise in rainy seasons. A stout rope is 
stretched from bank to bank, and the boat is moved by 
another rope attached to this one. A few huts on each 
side constitute the village of Moramulco. As far as La 
Venta we followed the valley of the Xacaome River. We 
crossed this river several times, and found it from fifty to 
three hundred feet wide. Its current is broken and swift. 
Its shores are of lava-rock and large and small pebbles. 
At La Yenta, a little village on a steep hill-side at the 
extremity of one of the great valleys, w^e rested for the 
night in a private house, no public one existing. 



Y6 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

Daylight of November 9th found us " over the hills 
and far away," getting splendid views of valley and vol- 
cano. Chinandega and San Miguel vied with each other, 
and the great bay of Fonseca remained sentineled by 
Conseguina and Conchagua. We now entered a thin 
forest of pitch and yellow pine. The air grew rich with 
balsam. The scene put on the aspect of the temperate 
zone. The road was not too steep and was hard and 
smooth. We breakfasted at Sahara Grande. This place 
lies near the bottom of a valley. It is the largest town on 
the highway from coast to capital. Upon the plaza is an 
old church with good fa9ade. The place lacks a hotel, 
but meals may be obtained at a private house. A single 
telegraph wire accompanies the road from La Brea to 
Tegucigalpa, and there are three telegraph stations. The 
latter serve at the same time as post-offices. The mail is 
carried on foot, one man making the entire distance be- 
tween the two places in forty-eight hours. The mule- 
road allows of many short cuts. Leaving Sahara Grande, 
we began the ascent of the Lepaterique Mountains. 
After passing these we crossed the still higher range of 
Ube, which brought us to the plateau whereon is the 
province of Tegucigalpa. The pine forests now gave place 
to meadows of fine grass, upon which numerous sleek 
cattle browsed. Many trees were a mass of orchids. Oc- 
casionally the ground was rocky, and covered with odd- 
looking varieties of cacti. It became cooler, for we were 
now four thousand feet above the sea. We found a good 
deal of marshy and level pasture-land, and rode through 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 77 

large groves of oak, whose limbs were hung with Spanish 
moss. This recalled the celebrated grove of Chapultepec 
near the city of Mexico. Occasionally we saw farmers 
using a plow as primitive as that of the ancient Egyp- 
tians — consisting of a wooden prong which did not seem 
to tickle the ground sufficiently to make it " laugh with 
harvests," as Douglas Jerrold saith. Stone walls replaced 
tree and cacti fences. The inhabitants, however, were 
poor specimens of humanity. Leaving the range of Ube, 
we proceeded down hill upon the best road I had ever 
encountered in Central ^i.merica. It would have done no 
discredit to New York's proudest park. Nearly all the 
streams were spanned by massive stone bridges. A roofed 
wooden bridge crossed the Eio Grande and another the 
Guaserique Eiver. As we neared the capital, of which we 
had obtained an appetizing glimpse, the short twilight 
faded into a dark rainy night. The white color of the 
smooth road enabled us to pursue our course, accom- 
panied as it was by myriads of fireflies. These benevo- 
lent pyrotechnics of nature lighted us on our way. At 
last, at eight in the evening, after having been in the 
saddle for nearly thirteen consecutive hours, we reached 
that part of Tegucigalpa which lies on the west bank of 
the Rio Grande. After some perambulation, we crossed 
a large, paved, arched bridge, which took us directly into 
the heart of the city and to the Hotel Americano, where 
we obtained very welcome shelter for both man and beast. 
After about fifteen minutes' walk north from the 
gi*eat plaza, in the center of Tegucigalpa, you arrive at the 



Y8 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

leveled summit of a little hill, which runs precipitously 
in the direction you have been taking. It is named La 
Leona, and from it the best view may be obtained of 
Tegucigalpa and the neighboring country. A large space 
has been graded, and the face of the hill will eventually 
be protected by a massive stone wall. In the center of 
the summit stands a large, octagonal, wooden pavilion, 
well provided with benches. A number of seats ran along 
the brow of the hill. Flower-beds and paths were being 
constructed. The road zigzags up in a grade suflaciently 
easy for a carriage, though horseback is the favorite 
method of ascent. A heavy stone wall protects the dan- 
gerous side of the road, and is a prominent sight from the 
city. The view obtained from the back of the Lioness is 
remarkably engaging. The country is hilly and is equally 
divided between wood and pasture land. Two distinctly 
marked valleys, however, present level bottoms and ac- 
commodate, at their intersection, the city of Tegucigalpa, 
built upon both sides of the Rio Grande and upon one 
side of the Rio Chiquito. The fine arched stone and 
brick bridge which we crossed in entering the city spans 
the Rio Grande and connects the two sections of the city. 
This river hardly bears out its grandiose title — at least, 
according to the ideas of one fresh from the land of the 
Mississippis, Missouris, and Ohios. At this point it is a 
boiling brook of foam, one to two hundred feet in width, 
its bed full of rocks, smooth stones, and gravel. The Rio 
Chiquito is merely a brooklet. In the rainy season both 
streams grow comparatively large. The Rio Grande runs 




statue to Morazan in Tegucigalpa. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 79 

north and south just here, and that part of the city on 
the east bank is Tegucigalpa proper. The suburb, called 
Concepcion, consisting mostly of two long streets, stands 
on the west bank. Ox-cart roads run from here to Co- 
mayagua, the second largest town, and to some gold and 
silver mines. The other roads are merely mule trails. 
Tegucigalpa may be said to be at the bottom of an am- 
phitheatre of hills. It is one of those miniature cities in 
which civilization and primitiveness are curiously blended. 
The houses are mostly of mud and one story in height, 
though in the vicinity of the central plaza some of them 
have two stories. The manner in which the town is laid 
out is not irregular. The streets are narrow and roughly 
paved with cobblestones, sloping toward the center, thus 
providing that merely surface drainage which is so un- 
sanitary. The sidewalks, though narrow, are paved with 
blocks of stone or brick, and the city is lighted with kero- 
sene lamps. It is policed by boys and young men, who 
wear suits of blue cotton duck and large straw hats, on 
which is a band marked, in large letters, " Police." These 
policemen are barefoot. Their jackets bear their re- 
spective numbers. 

Tegucigalpa has three pretty little parks, containing 
flowers, trees, and paths, together with busts and statues 
of distinguished Hondurans. The plaza — always " grand 
plaza" — is named Central Park, like that at San Jose, 
Costa Rica, and includes a very good bronze equestrian 
statue of Francisco Morazan, erected by the country. 
The marble pedestal is lofty. On one side a tablet bears 



80 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

an appropriate inscription. Another side reveals a bronze 
tablet, picturing spiritedly, in high relief, the Battle of 
La Trinidad, fought in September, 1821, and in which 
Morazan bore so noble a part. On the east side of Cen- 
tral Park is the massive cathedral, occupying an entire 
square. The imposing fa9ade is surmounted by two 
towers, in one of which a clock marks the time, of 
which, as I have already explained, Hondurans have a 
supply more than equal to the demand. The front is 
relieved by niches, enshrining carved figures of saints. 
The cathedral has a long cylindrical roof, with a grace- 
ful dome over the altar. Confession boxes, side altars, 
and old paintings abound inside. The principal altar 
is of carved wood, covered with rich gilding, with the 
central " Holy of Holies " in fretted and tinseled silver. 
There are three or four smaller churches, but none of 
them are of special interest. The dwellings were better 
than those of the other cities I had seen. The exte- 
riors were plain but the interiors were well furnished 
and lavishly ornamented. The general features resem- 
bled those I have already specified more than once, and 
henceforth if I do not mention them again, with respect 
to Honduras, Salvador, and Guatemala, it will be because 
no great difference exists between them and those found 
in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In Tegucigalpa the houses, 
though of only one story, are very high and the doors 
very large. The windows extend to the sidewalk, and 
have iron gratings outside and wooden shutters inside. 
The city is the capital and the mercantile and ecclesiasti- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 81 

cal center. Many of the keepers of the smallest stores — 
and all are small — speak English. The goods are the ne 
phis ultra of heterogeneity. American sewing-machines 
are found in mud huts as well as the houses of the rich. 
In cabins devoid of crockery and furniture this invention 
is present ! The contrasts here are many and very great. 
Half -naked men peddle water in casks beneath handsome 
bronze statues erected to patriots. Poor women use coins 
for weight, and wooden and string scales in the neigh- 
borhood of stores which display expensive knickknacks, 
Parisian millinery, and elegant jewels. The predomi- 
nance of the mestizo element, however, makes the place 
merely a big Indian village. But there is a university 
and many schools. No paper money circulates here or 
in the rest of Honduras. Tobacco and aguardiente are 
Government monopolies, generally farmed out to two 
men. The aguardiente is retailed at seventy-five cents 
per quart. Cigars are sold by Government by wholesale 
at half a cent each. 

On the evening of the day following our arrival, we 
went to the Teatro ISTacional, temporarily located in the 
university. The latter and the presidential palace occu- 
pied two sides of a little park which contained marble 
busts of Cabanas and Reyes, respectively a soldier and a 
priest, both famous in Honduran history. The theatre 
occupies the large inner court-yard of the university. 
The floor is of earth, the ceiling of canvas. From the 
latter depends a glass chandelier, which accommodates 
precisely four tallow candles. The rest of the theatre is 



82 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

lighted by kerosene. Above the level of the orchestra is 
a row of boxes. In the center of the gallery, covered 
with a crimson canopy, is the box reserved for the Presi- 
dent. The flags of Honduras ornament the sides of the 
stage, above. A military band of thirty pieces, under an 
American leader, furnished the music. This band con- 
sisted of young boys, barefoot, with ill-cut, unbrushed 
hair, and no attempt at the wearing of uniforms. The 
audience was small, Sunday being the gala night. The 
general appearance was precisely like that I have pre- 
viously indicated. A Spanish company performed come- 
diettas, with long intermissions. About a dozen Ameri- 
cans were present, some living there, some from the 
neighboring mines. 

The police force of Tegucigalpa consists of twenty- 
four boys or young men. They are under charge of an 
American, who told me they learn and perform their 
duties readily — the more so, perhaps, as unlike too many 
of our New York policemen, it is not necessary for them 
to acquire the art of insulting, assaulting, and maiming 
inoffensive or but venially offensive citizens. They are 
paid one dollar each per day. The delinquencies com- 
mitted are chiefly petty thefts. There was but one mur- 
der in a whole year, and this resulted from a drunken 
brawl. Capital punishment does not exist. Death by 
electrosion — a word which has been recently suggested to 
express execution by electricity — has not been introduced, 
and ten years' imprisonment is the severest sentence of 
the law. It is difficult to convict any one of theft. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 83 

Either the stolen property must be found upon him — 
in the case of horse thieves it probably would do if the 
thief was found upon the stolen property — or else two 
witnesses must swear to having seen the theft committed. 
Gambling is illegal, and dens are often raided. 

We called upon the President, General Luis Bogran. 
The palace is a very plain building, the piazza on the 
second story being inclosed with Venetian blinds, and the 
lower story being occupied as a guard -room. The officers 
wore red trousers and caps and blue coats, and carried 
immense sabers. In the adjutant's room was a stand of 
American Winchester rifles. The President received us 
in a large saloon, neatly furnished. Upon the floor was a 
velvet carpet. The papered walls were ornamented with 
eight mirrors. A crystal chandelier, many-candled, hung 
from the ceiling. The sofa and chairs were gilt and red 
velvet. As we entered the President approached from an 
adjoining room — tall, handsome, dignified, about forty- 
five years old. He was attired in a dark suit — not in 
evening dress. He accorded us an interview of an hour. 
He chatted mainly of Honduran matters, introducing 
critical remarks among those which were favorable. He 
had traveled in both Europe and the United States, and 
had made governmental contracts with the great republic 
and with various European powers. We found him well 
educated and accomplished. He spoke both English and 
French, though our conversation was in Spanish. This 
was the second time he had been in office. Many of the 
most notable improvements in the condition of the coun- 



84 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

try and in the application of capital were due to his talent 
and energy. Politically, he is an advanced Liberal, and 
is said to have an imperious will. He needs it, for there 
is a strong Conservative element in Honduras. For in- 
stance, a citizen dropped in while we were speaking of 
the mineral wealth of the country and the foreigners en- 
gaged in mining. The new arrival thought that foreign- 
ers should not be encouraged, inasmuch as they were 
taking all the precious metals out of the country. " Well," 
answered President Bogran, " as an example of what the 
foreigners have done, let me say that when I obtained 
power a few years ago the mail-carrier could bring, in 
addition to the mail, all the silver down to the coast ; but 
now the American company of one mine alone have em- 
ployed in their work two thousand mules. We, at least, 
can not and have not used our mines, and it is better 
that we should have the money and business that for- 
eigners bring to the country. Honduras," he continued, 
"is very rich, not only in minerals, but in agricultural 
products, for it has vast plains but little above the level 
of the sea, and hills four or five thousand feet in eleva- 
tion, thus yielding a wide variety of produce. But Hon- 
duras requires interior communication. It needs some 
railroads, but it also needs more cart and stage roads. 
It is a very hilly and generally uneven country. A large 
portion of the population dwell far inland. The mule- 
teers are sworn opponents of railways and stage lines." 
The President, however, is determined. He says he will 
make a beginning of putting the road in good order from 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 85 

La Brea to Tegucigalpa, and starting — and subsidizing, 
if necessary — a line of diligences upon it during the com- 
ing year (1888). Eeference was made to the enormous 
debt incurred by Honduras in starting, without building 
more than thirty-five miles of a great interoceanic rail- 
way from Puerto Cortez, a splendid harbor on the Atlan- 
tic, to Amapala, or rather La Brea, on the Pacific. He 
said it was entirely an English concern, that Honduras 
never had the handling of one cent of the funds, but, 
believing that everything was regular, had merely guar- 
anteed the money. Affairs were very badly managed, how- 
ever, and it is a matter of history how all came to grief, 
and Honduras became saddled with a debt of thirty-one 
million dollars, on which she has never been able to pay 
any interest, but which the President is endeavoring to 
consolidate and otherwise adjust. He added that when 
these and some other matters were arranged, a Chicago 
company was willing to build the railway. He said that 
the poverty of Honduras was to be found in the igno- 
rance of the masses of the population, which prevented 
them from making the most of their environment. He 
therefore favored immigration, and was especially partial 
to Americans. We found General Bogi'an's entire con- 
versation patriotic and sensible. His record shows in 
part what he has wished to do, and well would it be for 
Honduras were more of his ideas adopted and carried 
out. He is in advance of his times. While this inter- 
view was in progress, three barefoot boys of the lowest 
class walked in the room, threw their hats on the floor. 



86 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

and reverently bowed to the President, who rose at once, 
cordially shook hands with them, and asked them to be 
seated. It was a fine display of democracy — a notable 
example of the free-and-equal dogma worked out to ulti- 
mate conclusions in a Central American republic. 

On November 11th we left Tegucigalpa, but not be- 
fore having heard the Boulanger March played from a 
private house. We reached Sahara Grande in the middle 
of the afternoon, and spent the night there, leaving at 
daylight next morning en route for Amapala, arriving at 
Pespire at 3 p. M. On the way I observed that in some of 
the fields the men were thrashing out the rice, taking a 
handful of straw at a time, and beating it upon a small 
platform surrounded by a fender of plantain leaves. 
Near most of the haciendas, or farm-houses, were great 
square hen coops, raised eight or ten feet from the ground 
on posts. This was to protect chickens from prowling 
foxes. On the banks of the Nacaome Eiver, a short dis- 
tance south of Pespire, were masses of black basalt, tilted 
on end, and standing in terraces, like those in the Giant's 
Causeway, Ireland. In coming down from Tegucigalpa 
we had met much freight going into the interior. This 
was mostly for the mines — and for those of Rosario and 
San Juancito, more particularly, to the east of the capi- 
tal. Trains of eight or ten mules had a mounted mozo 
ahead, with two or three boys as drivers. The mules 
were noticeable as large, fine, fat specimens of their kind. 
During our journey heavy showers, accompanied by thun- 
der and lightning, fell every day about 2 or 3 P. m. Small 




General Bogran, President of Honduras. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 87 

rivers and lakes were thus improvised. The enormously 
large rain-drops fall on mule, rider, or pedestrian almost 
like the sting of a whip, but the showers do not extend 
over much surface or last for a long time. 

We left Pespire at 7 A. m. on November 13th, and ar- 
rived at San Lorenzo in four and a half hours. A boat 
for which we had telegraphed to Amapala arrived during 
the night, and at daylight we started for that place. Un- 
fortunately, the tide being low, we ran aground on an 
enormous shoal of sand, and the tide continued to fall so 
rapidly that we were unable to get afloat. A large cargo 
boat having succeeded in keeping the channel, came 
within range. We hailed her, received permission to em- 
bark, and walking some distance upon the nearly dry 
sand, were then carried on board on the shoulders of the 
crew. The boat was taking ox hides to Amapala. Pres- 
ently the wind died out, the men got exhausted with 
rowing, and we halted for two hours' rest on one of the 
small islands that lie between Tigre and Sacate Grande. 
While the men were rowing, each with a broad fan- 
shaped slab of mahogany fastened to the end of a long 
pole, I noticed that they rose at each stroke, so as to im- 
press their full weight upon the oars in pulling back ; 
also that they alternated twenty short quick strokes with 
half as many long slow ones. Our intended rest of two 
hours lengthened into five, it being necessary to wait for 
the tide to turn. But, even after we did start, the wind, 
which had been favorable, died out, and rowing had to be 
resorted to again. This was when we were half-way to 



88 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

Amapala, wMch, however, we finally reached at 3.30 P. M., 
on the afternoon of November 14th. We thus terminated 
a somewhat disagreeable journey, during which we had 
passed forty-eight hours with nothing to eat excepting 
two meals of tortillas, or corn cakes, and fried eggs ; and 
not enough of these. However, travelers can not be 
choosers. 

We spent the next two days in waiting for an oppor- 
tunity to get to La Libertad, Salvador, and finally left in 
a steamer of the Pacific Mail Line, at eleven in the morn- 
ing of the 17th, going by way of La Union. Crossing 
the Gulf of Fonseca and threading the narrow strait be- 
tween Punta Sacate and the promontory that holds the 
volcano of Conchagua, we entered the large and deep bay 
of La Union, and anchored about a mile distant from 
the town of that name. On the slope of Conchagua ap- 
peared the dome of the church of La Union. The thick- 
ness of the vegetation concealed the town. Several light- 
ers were anchored oS the shore, and came out to get some 
of our freight. At dusk we started for La Libertad, 
passing Conchagua, of whose beautifully green trees and 
cleared patches of pasture, beans, and maize we took a 
last farewell. Gliding by Conch aguita Island, we rounded 
the Punta de Amapala, and sailed about due west for La 
Libertad. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 89 



4. SALVADOR. 



At daylight we were running directly in toward the 
shore. A high and yery rough range of green hills ex- 
tended nearly down to the sea. To the southeast were 
half a dozen irregular and broken craters, one of them 
dark blue and quite high. The most easterly was San 
Miguel. Just at the water's edge stood La Libertad, on a 
narrow and level expanse. A long iron pier projected 
into the sea, with a large wood and iron shed at the ex- 
tremity. Behind the red roofs of the houses, above many 
of which rose flagstaffs, shone the green of the steep hills. 
The short mountain range beyond revealed one peak run- 
ning to an exceptionally sharp point. A part of the 
range was covered with forest, and the clearings showed 
pasture land and plantations yielding beans, maize, and 
sugar-cane. To the eastward of this lovely peak stands 
the city of San Salvador. And I will seize the opportu- 
nity of stating here, what I think I have mentioned be- 
fore, that it is the state only which is called Salvador, the 
name San Salvador being reserved for the capital. The 
misapprehension upon the point is general, and is sus- 
tained by the inaccurate nomenclature of atlases. As we 
neared La Libertad the vegetation displayed cocoanut- 
palms, bananas, and bread-fruit. When we anchored im- 
mense lighters came out and landed us, our luggage, and 
the freight. From the iron pier the heavy swell of the 
sea became more evident. The breakers dashed with a 

r 



90 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

noise like thunder, and seemed to shake the sandy beach 
wherewith all this part of Salvador is bordered. The 
steam cranes on the pier were used for raising and low- 
ering passengers as well as freight, so rough is the sea 
and so high above its surface is the pier. A large iron 
cage, with a circular seat in its center, capable of holding 
four persons, is lowered to the boat, and passengers are 
thus gently wafted above the boiling surge to safety on 
the pier. Hand-cars are run thence to the custom-house, 
where the inspection caused us no trouble or delay. A 
small covered stage, with five horses — or sometimes mules 
— plies between that point and the capital. Formerly it 
ran every day, carrying the mail, but now the mail is 
carried afoot, and the diligence goes only when needed 
by passengers. There being only one stage, you may 
have to wait its arrival from the other end of the route. 
Mules are always to be had — or to be waited for until 
they arrive from the interior— and as the coach takes 
eight hours in traversing twenty-five miles, we concluded 
to wait for mules, in order to see the country better, go 
faster, and be more comfortable. Pending their arrival 
we inspected La Libertad. We had come twenty-one 
miles from Amapala to La Union, and one hundred and 
four miles from La Union to our present resting-place. 
The latter does^ not need any detailed description. The 
harbor is entirely unprotected, as open as the Pacific it- 
self. The Government charges each passenger twenty- 
five cents for landing on the pier, including the ascent by 
cage. Packages of ordinary size are charged fifty cents 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 91 

apiece. The national colors flying above the custom- 
house were similar in arrangement and outline to those of 
the United States, the stripes being blue and white alter- 
nately, the stars small and white, and the field in the up- 
per corner, near the flagstaff, scarlet. 

The heavy portion of our baggage had been sent for- 
ward in a cart, and was expected to reach San Salvador 
not later than six hours after ourselves. At two in the 
morning our mules arrived at La Libertad. They in- 
cluded one which was to carry both our light baggage and 
our servant, and we started at once for the capital, the 
bright stars and flaming constellations making our way 
clear. Behind us was the Southern Cross, before us the 
Great Bear. There was no moon. At first we followed 
the coast to the eastward, but soon left behind the damp 
hot air of the ocean, and ascended into a cooler and more 
refreshing atmosphere. Not until after many hours did 
we cease to hear the heavy booming of the surf. The 
road was crooked, rough, and rocky, but it was wide and 
of an easy grade. The only evidence of habitation was 
the surly barking of a cur or the shrill croAving of a cock. 
We met several other travelers; for, to avoid the heat, 
glare, and possible heavy showers of midday and after- 
noon, most journeying is done at night. Several times we 
passed ox trains encamped at the roadside, and with the 
first streaks of dawn others began moving. These were 
large skin-covered carts, drawn by two yoke of oxen, going 
to La Libertad to bring up freight from the steamers. 
Dawn showed a hilly and broken country. The general 



92 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

absence of timber and frequency of cultivation betokened 
a more thickly settled region. First we passed by fields 
of sugar-cane, beans, and maize, and then, as we got 
higher, we rode through miles and miles of coffee. Hill 
and dale abounded upon every side. Behind us were 
magnificent stretches of ocean ; before us was the peak of 
San Salvador. Upon starting the houses we saw were of 
straw and thatched roofs ; now we encountered the more 
pretentious mud fabrics, roofed with tile. There was 
only one town upon the road between La Libertad and 
San Salvador, namely, Zaragosa, with its single long, 
paved street, lined with orange trees. We stopped at the 
hotel there for half an hour to take coffee and bread. 
Then we crossed the crest of the mountain range through 
a narrow wooded canon which gave passage to a small 
stream flowing into the Atlantic. The road from here 
on was wide and smooth. We met many people, among 
them some gentlemen in a mediaeval-looking carriage to 
which three mules were harnessed abreast. Mule-back, 
however, is the favorite means of travel. Leaving the 
long and narrow defile of which I have just spoken we 
entered a beautiful valley, and saw directly in front of us 
the short range of hills at the extremity of which is the 
volcanic peak of San Salvador, its sides covered with pas- 
ture lands and plantations hedged in with arborescent 
fences of living green. To the left lay the city of Santa 
Tecla, the second in population and importance. It is 
connected with the capital by a line of four-mule tram- 
cars, which run four times daily, the distance being 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 93 

twelve miles. We passed the road which branches to 
Santa Tecla, and turned more to the eastward. About 
midway between the sides of the volcano San Salvador, 
which was now to the north of us, were plainly discerni- 
ble the sharply outlined rims of two gigantic craters. 
One of these was under careful cultivation, both inside 
and out, save its bottom, which was concealed by a pretty 
little lake. Both sides of the valley bore tribute to the 
husbandman's toil. Our pathway had previously been 
lined with large shrubs ablaze with flowers of many va- 
rieties. These now gave place to inclosing banks of cof- 
fee-bushes, thickly covered with red and nearly ripe ber- 
ries, the rich glossy leaves betokening careful cultivation 
and vigorous growth. During our ride I had been struck 
with the great numbers of birds — hooters, screamers, 
chatterers, and songsters vying with the owners of rare, 
odd, and beautiful plumage — flitting hither and thither 
like pinioned prisms. A ridge of mountains now ex- 
tended between us and the Pacific, and the scene on 
every side, and more especially on the flanks of the pre- 
cipitous volcanoes, cultivated and populated almost to the 
very summit, furnished a vivid picture of teeming and 
prosperous Salvadorian life. This was Arcadia shut in 
by jealous Nature from the rest of the world. This was 
Utopia, surviving in rustic quiet and sylvan simplicity, 
life and long feast derived from the riches yielded by an 
exuberant and grateful soil. But alas for the reverse 
side of this delusive medal ! Salvador is one of the most 
revolutionary of revolutionary countries. An insurrection 



94: CENTEAL AMERICA. 

had but just been quelled. The press in San Salvador 
had been abolished, save only the official gazette which 
publishes the Government decrees and announcements. 
At the request of the merchants, however, as I afterward 
discovered, an extra sheet for advertising purposes had 
just been allowed. More of this anon, however. 

"We were nearing the capital. The white dome of the 
cathedral appeared above the tree- tops. Soon we were 
clattering over roughly paved streets, and found accom- 
modations in a great rambling one-story hotel on the 
eastern side of the town. The general features were 
much the same as in other Central American hotels. At 
breakfast, I observed a conspicuously framed notice to the 
effect that " guests are requested to sit at table with the 
greatest possible decency." The room I occupied was 
covered with wall-paper of fifty colors, producing an as- 
tonishing effect. My door could be secured only by large 
bars of wood, intended to be wedged against it. The 
number of the room was indicated by a page torn from a 
diary and pasted above the door. I had not been long in 
the city ere I found that it would be easy to imagine it 
under martial law. To leave the country special permits 
must be obtained. Troops were marching, bands were 
playing, drums were beating, bugles sounding, and can- 
non booming. A gentleman of whom I inquired whether 
political matters were now stable, replied '' Quien sabe ? " 
with a shoulder-shrug which included the eyebrows. 
Many citizens had been shot and imprisoned. Many 
more had been exiled for taking part, directly or indi- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 95 

rectly, in the late revolution. Many had made their 
headquarters at Managua, Nicarauga, pending a change of 
administration, perhaps plotting to secure one. Eevolu- 
tionism would seem to be almost a distinct profession in 
Central and South America, A large proportion of the 
upper classes apparently devote their lives to it, and cer- 
tainly often lose their lives at it. The greatest burden 
falls on the poor and ignorant, and the condition of 
affairs brought about is as ridiculous as it is lamentable. 
The countless drills and endless marchings, the incessant 
bugling and drum-beating, kept the city in nervous dis- 
comfort all the livelong day and half the night. At five 
in the morning a heavy gun was fired from the barracks, 
at the next corner from the hotel, and seemed to be sta- 
tioned in the court-yard of the hotel itself. Then the 
bugles sounded and the band played, and the martial 
racket was kept up for about an hour, rendering sleep im- 
possible. The military din had hardly ceased when the 
ecclesiastical began, and that this increased the foreign- 
ers' distress need scarcely be said. To an occasionally 
good military band no one could object, provided it dis- 
coursed at a proper time. One band of fifty that I saw 
was attired in dark- blue uniform and played by ear, 
without notes, an Offenbachian type of music in an 
acceptable manner. The troops were mostly wild-looking 
boys, unkempt, frequently barefoot, and wearing linen 
jackets and trousers of many different colors. They were 
armed with Eemington rifles, which, with bayonets at- 
tached, seemed about twice the length of their bearers. 



96 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

The officers were dressed in a neat dark-blue uniform, of 
United States pattern, too warm, one would think, for 
that climate. But observe how intimately savagery and 
enlightenment are blended in Central American coun- 
tries. As this band and these troops marched past my 
hotel door, ladies, dressed in the extreme of the newest 
Paris fashions and holding elaborately bound prayer- 
books, proceeded on their way to mass; and while the 
behests of war and religion were thus being heeded, as 
primitive a little block-wheel cart as ever squealed in 
Central Africa rounded the corner, its oxen's heads 
lashed to the customary single cross beam, and driven by 
a half-nude boy with a long pole. A peasant with a 
troubled look came toiling up another street, pulling 
along two pigs by ropes, while his wife walloped them 
with the twigs of a tree ! Countless incongruities are 
mingled there. The fine gradations of higher civiliza- 
tions do not exist. These incongruities, however, give 
piquancy to travel, for in many other respects the tone 
of life is languid, listless, and monotonous. 

The city of San Salvador is not without its Cen- 
tral Park, which is nicely laid out, and is filled with 
cocoanut - palms, bananas, bread-fruits, and all sorts of 
beauteously leafed and flowering shrubs. Broad paved 
paths converge from corners and sides to the center, 
where a band-stand is constructed somewhat Oriental in 
type. Around the park's outer edge a walk is shaded by 
a double row of orange trees, which at the time of my 
visit were laden with fruit, like constellations in a sky of 







- 



A Salvador Belle. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 97 

green. Here the band plays, from seven to eight, two 
nights in the week, under a German leader, and every- 
body, high and low, promenades around and around, as 
though pedestrianism was heaven's first law. The park 
is supplied with settees of artificial stone, and near the 
band-stand are several movable kiosks furnished with 
awning-covered seats. Offenbach, Suppe, and Strauss 
are well interpreted, and the then popular Boulanger 
March was given with dash. The promenade crowd was 
exceedingly democratic, and good-nature was the soul of 
the universal chatter. Arrieros elbowed generals, and 
peons preceded ministers. Even the glowing heavens 
shared this democracy, for the small moon was thrust 
into insignificance by thousands of starry rivals. Through 
and around the park enervating perfumes stole through 
nodding palms to entice to languor the sparkling strains 
of opera-bouffe. A poet or an artist would have appreci- 
ated the spectacle, but it was not altogether lost upon the 
humble traveler. 

San Salvador is, as I have said, situated in a beautiful 
valley embosomed in hills. The volcano of the same 
name rises to the north. Barren mountain ranges, with 
here and there a volcanic peak, rise in the far distance 
to the right. To the east is the sharp volcanic cone of 
San Vicente, eight thousand feet high, the loftiest in Sal- 
vador. Between San Vicente and the city, and only five 
miles distant, is Lake Ilopango, which unexpectedly gave 
birth to a volcano about eight years ago. To the south a 
mountain ridge interrupts a view of the Pacific, but is 



98 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

pleasantly shrouded with pasture and produce. On the 
west the valley extends in the direction of Santa Tecla. 
The capital is not only beautiful, but its altitude and un- 
constricted boundaries conspire with its drainage to ren- 
der it healthy. The remote view from the top of the 
bell-tower of the cathedral is of barren peaks ; the near 
view of glossy, rich, and deep- green vegetation in diversi- 
fied patches separated by cactus hedges. Looking down 
upon the city, it sparkles like an iridescent pearl, and 
you do not realize that it contains twenty-five thousand 
inhabitants. It is compactly built, however, and much 
of it is concealed by trees. The two principal squares 
are the beautiful little Central Park, described above, 
and the Plaza de Armas. A third is Morazan Park, so 
small as to be invisible from the campanile. The Presi- 
dent's palace is a large white wooden house with a 
lofty tower. On the west side of Central Park stands 
the Capitol, containing the offices of the Government. 
The front is porticoed. Some distance away is the very 
pretty wooden facade of a little church. The barracks 
are quadrangular and enormous, with round towers 
at the corners. One story is the general height of the 
dwellings. I have nowhere seen lower built edifices 
save in Caracas, Venezuela, the history of both of these 
places revealing the terrific character of the earthquakes 
that have visited them. Most of the city is laid out at 
right angles, and is roughly paved, the streets sloping 
from both sides toward the center. The sidewalks are 
of brick, and of the usual Spanish American narrowness. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 99 

They are well lighted with kerosene, and policed by two 
hundred men and boys drilled and superintended by a 
man from New York. Their uniform consists of linen 
trousers, blue cloth jacket, and Panama hat. Each car- 
ries a long stout club, and wears upon his breast a num- 
ber and a metallic star. The theatre, which faces Mora- 
zan Park, has a graceful fa9ade and emblematic paintings 
on the pediment. The interior is painted in white and 
gold and much ornamented. Its other arrangements 
are, in most respects, like those mentioned by me else- 
where. Every portion of this theatre, however, was made 
in San Francisco, and the various sections were put to- 
gether here. Each of the lower proscenium boxes is cov- 
ered with a fine wire screen, and thus reserved for families 
in mourning who may wish to attend the theatre unseen 
by the audience. Each side of the orchestra stalls is 
flanked by the cheapest seats in the house. Both these 
features are unique. 'No performance happened to be 
given while we were in San Salvador. 

In Morazan Park is a colossal bronze statue of the pa- 
triot Morazan, made in Genoa, Italy. The massive ped- 
estal is decorated with bronze tablets in high relief, illus- 
trative of the hero's career ; and at the angles are marble 
figures emblematic of the other Central American States. 
The city possesses a good club, to which foreigners and 
visitors may be admitted, and at which they may be enter- 
tained. The unfinished cathedral is very large and in the 
form of a Greek cross, with narrow, elongated arms. It is 
being built wholly by charity. The dome and the roof are 



100 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

of corrugated galvanized iron, and the former resembles in 
outline that of our own Capitol at Washington. The fre- 
quent use of this material and of wood in both the public 
and the private houses of San Salvador distinguishes it 
from the other capitals and chief cities of Central Amer- 
ica. Red tiles and gayly stuccoed walls are thus dis- 
pensed with, and a sort of storage-warehouse effect is too 
general. The fa9ade of the cathedral is being made of 
iron in France. The columns, walls, ceilings, altars, con- 
fessionals, and, in fact, the entire interior of the great 
building are of red cedar. The floor alone is of laid stone, 
artificially tinted to resemble colored marble. The orna- 
mentation is of carved red cedar which, when oiled and 
polished, will produce an effect at once simple and rich. 
It will be the only church in the New World of precisely 
this kind of material and decoration. I predict that it 
will also be one of the finest in the New World. At- 
tached to the cathedral will be commodious two-story 
houses for the bishop and priests. Priests are not forbid- 
den here, as they are in Mexico, to appear in the streets in 
the garb of their profession. But though ecclesiastically 
influential, they are not so politically. 

The Palacio Nacional is two stories high, with three 
Greek-columned porticoes in front. It is a very large 
building, occupying the whole of a square. The outer 
windows have a little stained glass in their sashes. All 
the offices and rooms open upon the corridors of the 
court-yard. The imposing entrance is guarded all day by 
some twenty soldiers, who sit on benches and hold their 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 101 

rifles in their hands. Many of the lower rooms are ap- 
plied to barrack purposes. In the floor above are the de- 
partmental offices, containing very little furniture, and 
that little exceedingly simple. The edifice, however, is 
one of the largest and best of its class in Central America. 
On the same street, to the north, are the university and 
the National Institute, large two-story buildings, filling 
an entire square. They are among the finest in San Sal- 
vador. Their fronts are of stucco and wood, their roofs 
of galvanized iron, the architecture being solid and sub- 
stantial. The institute is a sort of high school, prepara- 
tory to the university. It has about two hundred male 
pupils, while the university has about half that number. 
The former contains an exhibition hall and study and 
recitation rooms. The chemical laboratory and the 
rooms for scientific instruments and zoological collections 
were of course not lavishly supplied, for they had only 
recently acquired such furnishing, as the director ex- 
plained to me, but they promised well, though they 
should have borne the appearance of being more used. 
The university contains the national library, most of the 
books naturally being Spanish, richly bound and kept in 
cedar cases with glass doors. Theological books appeared 
to predominate, though science, law, and history had 
their separate sections. The other collections of the uni- 
versity were beneath criticism. 

The market is too small for the needs of the place. 
Its sections were made of iron in England. It monopo- 
lizes a block not far from the cathedral. The floor is of 



102 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

cement, well-drained. Outside tlie market proper is an 
open annex where the poorer women exhibit their wares, 
shaded from the sun by straw mats. The regular market 
was equally packed v/ith things to sell and persons to sell 
them. The majority of the latter were either Indians or 
presented features of strongly marked Indian descent. 
Nowhere else did I ever see so vast a quantity and vari- 
ety of articles brought together within the same space. 
Turning from the market, a very extraordinary sight is 
the President's palace, situated at an angle of the Plaza 
de Armas. Two sides of this plaza are lined with por- 
tales, or small shops opening upon a corridored sidewalk. 
The vast incomplete cathedral occupies another side, and 
the Municipalidad, or City Hall, the fourth side. Now, 
fancy, obtruding itself amid this scene, a large, wide, 
two-story wooden house with a three-story square tower 
and an iron roof, exactly such as may be seen in any 
large New England town, and you can picture the incon- 
gruity. I never saw it equaled elsewhere in Central 
America. But I ought to have been prepared for any- 
thing after having observed a sign which read, "Vac- 
cination Office and Botanical Garden." When I entered 
and inquired there, I was relieved to find that the double 
duty required two persons. The lower story of the 
President's palace is occupied by guards and military 
officers, the upper by His Excellency and family. The 
house is surrounded by a small fringe of shrubs and 
flowers, shut in by an iron fence. The edifice, being of 
wood, might withstand an earthquake shock, were it not 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 103 

two lofty stories in height. It was planned by an Ameri- 
can architect and erected by xAmerican workmen. 

The cemetery lies a little out of town, to the west, 
and looking from it you get a view of the crater and the 
sharp peak of San Salvador. Just outside the gateway 
stands in solitary magnificence an enormous tree — a ceiba 
— twenty-five feet in diameter at its base and one hun- 
dred and fifty feet high. It stands walled in, as though 
to defend so august a prisoner from the touch of the 
profane. The limbs have been removed from the lower 
portion, but the massive head remains unscathed. In 
the cemetery earth or vault burials are exclusively used, 
owing to the destructiveness of earthquakes, in prefer- 
ence to the mural mode popular elsewhere. Some of the 
marble monuments were made in Italy. One of the 
most noticeable is that of a former President, who was 
shot underneath the great tree by an opposing political 
faction. As I was returning from the cemetery I met 
the funeral procession of a baby accompanied by a small 
brass band. This custom is observed by the lower class 
only, a band never being employed at the funeral of an 
adult in the upper classes unless he was a soldier. The 
procession was on foot, and consisted of the male friends 
of the bereaved family. The white casket, covered with 
flowers, was carried on the shoulders of four laughing 
boys. The men held bouquets, and walked hand in hand 
fraternally. Some of them were a little the worse for 
aguardiente, and the display had some of the features of 
an Irish wake. 



104 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

About fifteen hundred troops were stationed in the 
various barracks. Drills and parades take place morning 
and afternoon in the sandy Plaza de Armas. The fine 
military band, however, discourses only on Sundays, 
Thursdays, and feast days. A painful sight in the streets 
was a gang of prisoners chained in couples, at the ankles, 
by huge iron links, the weight of the links being some- 
what lightened by a leather strap attached to the waist 
belt. These convicts were on their way to one of the 
public works, where they were employed, and were es- 
corted by a strong guard of soldiers, commanded by an 
officer. 

Every house and store is connected with a court-yard, 
in or near which are often kept the horses and mules 
belonging to the proprietor. It frequently happens that 
this court-yard can be reached only by passing through 
the front door of the shop or dwelling. One day I saw 
a boy lead a mule from the street into a shop, and so on 
behind the counter through the back door into the court- 
yard. Foreigners alone are conscious of the absurdity of 
such a spectacle. Paper money is employed in Salvador. 
The bills are badly and cheaply made in London in imi- 
tation of the excellent ones produced by the American 
Bank-Note Company of New York. 

The frequent and simultaneous explosion of a number 
of rockets merely means — not an incipient revolution, as 
might naturally be suspected — but a diversion of some 
kind, public or private, civic, ecclesiastical, or military. 
The Church and the theatre use up a great many rockets. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 105 

The theatre announces its performances by this means, 
and the Church thus celebrates its innumerable fiestas. 
Private families similarly commemorate a wedding, a 
christening, or a birthday party. A circle of convivial 
young men at a club or hotel indulge in the same sport 
in the back yard. These displays take place during the 
day, so that these curious people care nothing for the 
beauty and brilliancy of pyrotechnics by night. The noise 
alone seems to gi-atify them. The diurnal fireworks of 
Japan give pleasure because of being so constructed that 
the smoke generated indicates their varied movements in 
the air. This advantage — such as it is — does not charac- 
terize the rockets of San Salvador. 

"When I told a native gentleman at the hotel that my 
object in going to San Salvador was merely to see the 
place and the people, he said he feared that I would have 
to get a special permit from the President to inspect the 
barracks and other army quarters, if, indeed, any stranger 
could be allowed such a privilege. This serves to illus- 
trate the conspicuousness that war and fighting hold in 
the eyes of Salvadorians. I much surprised my inform- 
ant by telling him that the army interested me less than 
anything else. Revolutions and insurrections have de- 
moralized the Government. A professor in the military 
school called upon a merchant at the hotel to make a pur- 
chase amounting to four dollars and a half, but before 
doing so he was obliged to notify the authorities, inas- 
much as if the Government declined to pay he himself 
would be unable to do so, being too poor. 



106 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

We did not omit to take the tramway to Santa Tecla, 
about twelve miles distant. The gauge of the road was 
great and the rails light. There were no cuttings or fill- 
ings worth mention. The cars were made by John Ste- 
phenson & Co., New York. Four mules were used to 
each car. Besides the driver was a conductor, who sold 
tickets and tended brake. The road leads through jungle 
and coffee land and passes by a station that is half-way 
between the two cities. At this station the cars going in 
opposite directions exchange their mules. The twelve 
miles are covered in about an hour and a quarter. Santa 
Tecla has a large grass-grown crater just behind it. The 
town itself is widely extended, with broad streets and 
large plazas and parks. The Central Park is a wilderness 
of shrubs and flowers. I noticed several very fine large 
private residences, with splendid woodwork to their rich 
dark verandas, windows, and doors, and having pretty 
gardens and fountains before them. In one of the sandy 
plazas a cheap market was in progress. The usual bar- 
racks and municipal buildings put in their plea for no- 
tice, and from every part of the town you could see the 
huge crater looming up, like an overhanging phantom, 
its impending mouth threatening the beautiful meadows 
that blossomed near. Santa Tecla seems to have been 
built more with an eye than San Salvador to earthquake 
shocks. The ground is not thought to be very solid, but 
there is enough street room to shield from falling houses. 
The tramway sometimes runs for long distances quite in 
the shade, almost concealed by cocoanut-palms, bananas, 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 107 

mangoes, and enormous flowering shrubs. Then, again, 
it passes between two dark walls of coffee bushes laden at 
that season (November) with berries which seem heavy 
with their dusky red. A diligence runs daily between 
Santa Tecla and the capital, and seems more popular than 
the swifter, smoother, and more commodious tramway. 
Old customs die hard in Central America. There are 
many good roads in the interior of Salvador, and dili- 
gences run daily. One runs from the capital to a town 
beyond Lake Ilopango, and communicates with a mule 
track three miles long, whereby you may reach the village 
of Ilopango, on the shores of the lake. The latter is 
about ten miles long from east to west, and five from 
north to south, and is very deep. In its center are the 
rocky remains of the extinct volcano to which I have 
heretofore referred. 

At two o'clock on the morning of November 26th we 
were treated to a genuine sensation. This was neither 
more nor less than a heavy earthquake shock. I was 
suddenly awakened from a sound sleep, and as I arose 
the house seemed to be rocking from side to side. I 
heard the mice scampering from the roof, and dust and 
dirt fell in a shower from the ceiling. I lit my candle 
and found that it was exactly two. I looked out into the 
street, wondering whether it would not be safer to go 
there, and as I looked lights appeared in all the neighbor- 
ing houses, and heads were thrust from the doors, as 
though my own fears were shared by the entire popula- 
tion. The rocking motion was like that which one feels 



108 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

in a small boat at sea. Three distinct earth waves seemed 
almost instantly to pass. The duration could not have 
been more than five seconds. The general direction was 
from south to north. A slightly vertical motion had been 
given to the bed which I had just vacated. Had the 
oscillations been a little stronger, or a little larger, the 
effect of seasickness would have been produced. Fortu- 
nately no more shocks came, but the city had become 
sufficiently awake. I returned to bed and slept till four, 
when I arose and, with my comrade, took a carriage for 
La Liber tad. 

These carriages are small and covered. They are pro- 
pelled on stout wheels and stout axles, suitable for the 
rough, rocky road. They may be hired in limited num- 
bers from the man who supplies the diligence. Three 
mules are used, the middle one being confined in the 
shafts. "We reached La Liber tad in six hours, arriving in 
time for the midday breakfast. At both Zaragosa and 
La Libertad the shock was distinctly felt and regarded as 
severe. At the last-mentioned place we had nothing to 
do but to await the arrival of the Pacific mail steamer 
which was to take us to Acajutla and San Jose. She did 
not arrive until the evening of November 28th, and at 
nine the next morning we were put into the iron cage, 
like prisoners of state, and safely embarked. The steamer 
took on eighty tons of freight, and then we set sail for 
Acajutla, saluting the receding shore and the neighboring 
Spanish steamer with three whistles and the dipping of 
our ensign. Two small German brigs which we had 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 109 

noticed while in port had spread canvas for fatherland the 
night hefore — a voyage of five months ! 

We followed the coast to the westward, two or three 
miles distant. It did not present many indentations. It 
was low and woody in the foreground, hilly, and even 
mountainous in the distance. A few small rivers here 
enter the ocean. Evidences of human habitations were 
sparse. We passed the boundaries of the department (or 
county) of San Salvador, and reached those of Sonsonate. 
Here we had a fine view of the great volcano of Izalco, 
smooth and wholly bare, like Momotombo, possessing a 
sharp, sandy cone, and noted for its great flow of lava. 
This enormous yellow outpouring had covered the whole 
summit of the volcano, and submerged the forests on its 
base with far extending branches like frozen rivers. 
West of this volcano we could just discern a few of the 
larger buildings of the city of Sonsonate. Thence a rail- 
way extends to the sea-coast and Acajutla, abreast of 
which, in the open roadstead, we anchored for the night. 
Acajutla, from that point of view, did not appear to 
special advantage. A high iron pier, covered with a shed, 
projected from the bluff, which was wave-worn into 
numerous caverns, great and small. The country showed 
plenty of forest land, and the hills behind revealed rich 
pastures and the usual crops of sugar-cane, beans, and 
maize. The distance between La Libertad and Acajutla 
is only thirty-eight miles, and the coast is named Costa 
del Balsam.o, because it was thought that that medicinal 
plant was to be found only there. In the rear of Sonso- 



110 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

nate is a range of volcanoes which reminds me somewhat 
of Los Marabios in Nicaragua, excepting that here the 
volcanoes are points in a continuous range rather than 
isolated peaks. There are seven of these outlying craters, 
and two more nearer the coast. That at the southern end 
is the celebrated Izalco. 

The slopes of all these volcanoes are deeply furrowed, 
and their soil, excepting that of Izalco, is extremely fer- 
tile. As we dropped anchor I caught a brief view of sev- 
eral lofty and sharp peaks in the neighboring republic of 
Guatemala, the principal port of which, San Jose, is only 
sixty miles from Acajutla. There being a full moon, we 
unloaded cargo until nearly midnight, and completed the 
task at midday on the 30th. At 1 p. M. on that date 
we left for San Jose. The range of rough, jagged mount- 
ains continued, parallel with, but at some distance from 
the coast. The level foreground was garmented with 
both forest and pasture land. One lofty volcanic peak, 
named Mita, towered near the boundary line between Sal- 
vador and Guatemala. A small river emptying into the 
Pacific divides these republics. 



5. GUATEMALA 

Views of the splendid peaks of the famous volcanoes 
Agua and Fuego burst upon us as we proceeded along 
Guatemala's shore. Agua impresses one by its height and 



CENTRAL AMERICA. HI 

regular cone shape. Fuego boasts two peaks, the higher 
one only being active. Companion peaks shot up in 
rivalry, and notched ranges were scattered like gigantic 
fangs, piercing the air at intervals. These pinnacles 
punctuate with exclamation points the distance between 
San Jose and the capital of Guatemala, and their smooth 
slopes are rich in cultivation. At about half -past eight 
in the evening we anchored in the very exposed roadstead 
of San Jose. The lights of the Government and railway 
buildings and hotels extended for quite a distance along 
the coast. A pier ran out into the sea. A heavy swell 
prevailed, and the breakers were loud in their reverber- 
ation. The captain of the port came on board, wearing a 
gold-embroidered blue coat and gold-striped red trousers 
which would have done justice to a French general of 
artillery. 

Early in the morning (December 1) we obtained our 
first view of San Jose. To the west was the cone of Atit- 
lan, almost directly in front of the smoking and steaming 
Fuego. To the right of this, twenty miles distant, arose 
majestically the smooth, verdurous cone of Agua, and to 
the east of this the smaller but sharp cone of Pacaya. 
Behind Fuego was Acatenango, the highest extinct vol- 
cano in Central America, being 13,612 feet above the 
level of the sea. Presently the great freight launches 
came alongside of us, and all the passengers were lowered 
in a chair. This method of landing passengers, swinging 
them in mid-air over a boiling sea, looks more dangerous 
than it is. You are fastened securely upon the chair, 



112 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

and especial pains are taken to assure women and chil- 
dren. Our luggage had also to be lowered, piece by piece, 
and this took so much time that we should have lost the 
train for the city of Guatemala had it not waited for us 
beyond schedule time. On the pier were some policemen, 
whose uniform, including even the caps, was the exact 
counterpart of that worn by the New York city police. 
Club and star, coat and cap, almost persuaded me that I 
had landed on a wharf in North River. But the swarthy 
complexion of these civic guardians, the intense heat of 
the place, and the reality of the " cage " from which I 
had just emerged soon brought me to my proper bearings. 
The chief of the Guatemala police is an ex-policeman of 
New York. He has drilled his force into good condition. 
The pier was supplied with a track and traversed by a 
diminutive locomotive. Every passenger carrying bag- 
gage weighing more than one hundred pounds was 
charged one cent and a half per pound for the excess. 
Besides this a personal tax of two dollars was mulcted. 
This is inflicted by a company, not by the Government. 
If a person carries much baggage, the charge becomes so 
expensive as to amount to a duty. The railway station, 
custom-house, post-office, and hotel are at the land ex- 
tremity of the pier. Raised upon iron or wooden poles, 
they extend along the beach, which is separated from 
terra firma by a sort of morass, thus making San Jose 
almost an island. On the other side of the morass is a 
wretched little village of straw and bamboo huts. This 
constitutes the seaport of Guatemala city. The railway 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 113 

station is a large structure of wood and iron. Here you 
pay six dollars for a first-class ticket (there are three 
classes) to the capital, seventy-two miles distant. The 
railroad is narrow gauge and the rolling stock of Ameri- 
can style and manufacture. The road has been open 
about five years, before which time the trip had to be 
made by diligence, and occupied a whole day. There is 
but one through passenger train each way daily, and five 
hours are needed for the transit. 

The first half of the road crosses a level plain, extend- 
ing almost due north to the town of Escuintla. This 
takes you through a tangled forest, in which the most 
noticeable trees are ceibas of enormous size. The country 
is very thinly settled. At Escuintla, the capital of the 
department of the same name, we drew up inside a 
large wood and iron station, and halted three quarters of 
an hour for breakfast, which we ate in an open veranda 
beside the track. A bar was here discovered, presided 
over by a woman. Ere reaching Escuintla, the forest had 
begun to give way to pasture, and upon leaving that town 
we entered upon a district largely devoted to coffee and 
sugar-cane. Proceeding toward the capital in a north- 
easterly direction, we reached at last the mountain bases. 
Between the town of Escuintla and the village of Palin, a 
distance of but thirteen miles, the railroad rises over two 
thousand five hundred feet. The steepest grades are, I 
believe, four and a half per cent. The rise in altitude is 
physically perceived, and passengers close the car win- 
dows. We crossed eight deep and narrow gorges, over 



114 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

which wooden bridges had been built. These gorges 
looked as though they might have been formed during 
the great eruption of water from Agua, from whose flanks 
they are hollowed. At Palin we looked directly upon 
Fuego, bearing traces of scorias and lava. It was smok- 
ing gently enough just then, but bore evidence, in its 
jagged and broken summit, sand engirdled, of gigantic 
physical powers, when in other days, lava coursed down 
its sides into the forest. At Palin station a number of 
women of the Quiche tribe of Indians sold fruit, eggs, 
and cakes. These women were quite small in stature and 
revealed a Malay type of feature. Their hair was black, 
thick, and coarse, and was tied in a simple knot on top of 
the head. They were dressed alike in a coarse blue cloth, 
merely wrapped around the waist and descending to the 
ankles, one end being tucked within the other and thus 
held fast. They wore white jackets of coarse cotton, 
which did not quite reach the material that answered for 
skirt. One woman carried a baby in a fold of cloth 
strapped to her back. The wind at that time felt quite 
cold, but these barefooted, bareheaded, and otherwise 
scantily clad Indians were insensible to the chill. They 
had no vivacity or gayety, but preserved the serious and 
stolid expression peculiar to the Indian race. 

A great deal of coffee and sugar-cane is grown about 
the base of Agua, and we perceived several large factories 
and haciendas. We made many of the sharp turns per- 
mitted only to narrow-guage railways, and several long 
"tacks," ascending as easily as a carriage would glide 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 115 

along an ordinary road. Splendid views stretched behind 
us and upon the ocean. Following a narrow, cultivated 
valley, we reached the town of Amatitlan, situated on the 
lake of the same name. This is a pretty little sheet, 
dark blue in color, of irregular form, long and slim, sur- 
rounded by low wooded hills. I noticed many boiling 
springs along the shore, as well as evidence of their pres- 
ence in the waters of the lake itself, thus indicating the 
propinquity of subterranean fires. The local laundresses 
take advantage of this close proximity of -hot and cold 
water. Many flocks of ducks disported themselves in the 
lake and added to its animation. Passing in several dif- 
ferent directions, Ave came at last to a wide expanse in the 
valley. It reminded me of the great plain of Bogota in 
the Republic of Colombia. Soon we began to spy the 
towers of churches in the capital, but Guatemala can 
not be seen at a great distance from the windows of a 
railroad car, as so many cities can. A nearer approach 
took us past the elegant, new, two-story house of some 
rich citizen ; then a curious fortress threatened us from a 
neighboring hill ; next the walls of a huge penitentiary 
loomed up, followed by some workshops belonging to the 
railway company — and then our jaunt was over, and we 
alighted in a fine brick station. Here, for the moment, 
things wore quite a civilized look, though in a foreign 
style. A few officers stood about, in the uniform of the 
French army. The policemen, though badly sunburned, 
were evidently from New York. They wore the regula- 
tion club-you-if-you-look-at-me expression. Hacks, like 



116 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

those in New York, with more civil drivers than are to be 
found there, and with good horses and harness, stood 
ready. The waiting-rooms were ornamented with pict- 
ures of Coney Island excursion-boats and Broadway In- 
surance Companies. Small tram-cars, with conductors 
blowing whistles and ringing bells, started at regular in- 
tervals from the station door. A large closed mail-wagon, 
like those used in New York, and with two uniformed 
attendants, stood ready to receive the mail. I was dumb- 
founded, but soon recovered, having previously observed 
equally startling phenomena in unexpected places. It 
was too good to last. I knew that, sooner or later, I 
should find the aboriginal element cropping out through 
this modern gloss. 

We entered a tram-car made in New York. By the 
by, the cars all had the official notices printed in Eng- 
lish instead of Spanish. The badly paved street up which 
we rode was bordered with the customary one-story shops 
and dwelling houses, and gave us our first disillusion- 
ment. On alighting we had a few steps to walk to what 
is regarded as the first hotel in the city. It is kept by a 
German. It was a large two-story building with a court- 
yard laid out as a garden, and filled with orange trees, 
oleanders, orchids, ferns, vines, and flowers. A billiard 
room and a bar presented their usual attractions. The 
long corridors of the hotel were inclosed with glass ; for 
Guatemala, being nearly five thousand feet above the sea, 
has a temperate climate, and the nights and early morn- 
ings are, in the winter (it was December), very cool. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 117 

The hotel was full, some foreign merchants and several 
members of the diplomatic corps living there perma- 
nently. Some singers in an Italian opera company helped 
to swell the list. In the evening we attended a perform- 
ance of Era Diavolo at the National Theatre, a large 
brick and stucco building, with a columned and pedi- 
mented front, like that of the Parthenon. The stucco 
is in blocks, in imitation of stone, is painted cream color, 
and, at night, looks like marble. The building is ob- 
long, standing in the middle of a large square, and sur- 
rounded by orange and oleander trees, lawns, flowers, 
fountains, and walks. Huge iron gates are at the sides. 
In the pediment are the coat-of-arms of the republic 
and other ornaments in plaster relief. The evening was 
quite cool. People were wrapped in large old-fashioned 
cloaks, which recalled scenes in Quito and La Paz, as well 
as on the opera-bouffe stage — the conspirators chorus in 
La Fille de Madame Angot, for instance. Tall silk hats 
and gloves were worn, and canes were carried. Panama 
hats, however, were very common in conjunction with 
the enormous cloaks Just mentioned. Policemen were 
grouped around the theatre doors. Electric lights daz- 
zled the eyes outside the building and inside. For 
" grand opera " the prices were very moderate. We gave 
only ninety cents for our orchestra stalls. Exteriorly, 
theatres in Central America are not imposing; interi- 
orly we found this one most commodious and sumptuous. 
There are three galleries and a parquette. The prevail- 
ing colors of the decorations are red and gold. The par- 



118 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

quette has a brick floor, but padded bencbes. The boxes 
are in the two lower tiers. The latter are shallow, how- 
ever, and the boxes are not partitioned from each other. 
The Tipper gallery was only a few feet from the ceiling, 
and during the performance was fringed with a row of 
heads Indian in type. The ladies presented all that 
gayety and variety of toilet which I have already de- 
scribed as having witnessed in other Central American 
cities. As a rul-e they were without hats, but wore feath- 
ers, which I did not think added to their beauty; neither 
did the lavish use of powder and pigments, which the 
electric light betrayed in the crudest manner. Many of 
the younger ladies, with their soft, olive -tinted skin, 
glossy hair, and sparkling eyes, were very beautiful. 
None of the men were in evening dress. Those in the 
boxes wore " Prince Albert " coats, and those in the par- 
quette exhibited all the colors and styles of a great tailor- 
ing house. I noticed again the strange custom of the 
auditorium's becoming filled at once and at the last mo- 
ment ere the performance began, and of becoming en- 
tirely vacant during the long intermissions. Even the 
ladies in the boxes stepped into the corridor, though 
there was no room for promenading. Three proscenium 
boxes were on each side of the stage, the lower one on the 
right-hand side being reserved for' the President and his 
family. The stage was wide and deep and the scenery 
fairly good. The orchestra numbered fifty and did 
passably well. The principal singers were acceptable, 
and so was the male portion of the chorus, or rather, 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 119 

I might say, the male chorus, since of the four women 
who appeared in it only one sang ! The opera was fol- 
lowed by a ballet, which employed a premiere assoluta 
and a male assistant, and four secondas or coryphees. 
This ballet could not be taken seriously; but one is 
inclined to be gracious rather than critical when he 
gets a whole evening's entertainment for ninety cents. 
It was over by eleven. The opera has a subvention from 
the Government. During the winter it is given in either 
French or Italian three nights in the week. 

On December 6th I ascended a little knoll in the 
northeastern part of the city for the purpose of obtaining 
a bird's-eye view which should suggest future peregrina- 
tions. A broad road, traversed by a tramway and lit at 
night by electricity, leads out to this knoll. A church, 
which is the oldest in the republic, covers its top. It is a 
small, narrow edifice, with a cylindrical roof, and contains 
some old carvings and pictures. In front of it is a tower, 
in the side of which is a recess containing plaster sculpt- 
ures in high relief. Reaching the summit of the hill, 
called the Cerro del Carmen, I beheld the city of Guate- 
mala at my feet. It is situated in a long, narrow valley, 
with a gentle and even slope toward the east, and is be- 
girt with vegetable gardens and a few coffee plantations. 
Among the hills in sight were two, beautifully rounded, 
devoted to timber and pasture. To the west towered the 
great cone of the volcano known as Agua. To the left 
the sharp little cone of Pacaya peeped above a triple- 
peaked ridge. Far to the right smoked the crooked crag 



120 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

of Fuego, with the extinct crater of Acatenango for neigh- 
bor. In the northern part of the city I discerned the 
grand stand of the Hippodrome or race-course. To the 
east, upon a smooth low hill, were the white walls of the 
fort of Matamoras. As a contrast to all this the pink 
walls and towers of the Castillo de San Jose gleamed upon 
me from a high acclivity to the south. From the Hippo- 
drome to the Castillo the distance is two miles. The city 
itself extends no further than the Cerro del Carmen. It 
is compactly built and about a mile and a half square, 
without including its southern suburbs. The peaked 
roofs are covered with brown tiles, and the vari-colored 
walls spring from court-yards bunched with vivid foliage. 
Then, again, the generality of the houses being of but one 
story, the churches, convents, and public buildings, and 
even the theatre, loom forth with picturesque prominence. 
The cathedral stands in nearly the center of the city, and 
with its dome, its towers, and its massive walls, makes an 
imposing display. To the north of it is the Church of 
Santa Teresa whose walls and dome had been recently re- 
paired, and now shone with dazzling whiteness. The 
massive church and old convent of San Francisco are half 
way between the cathedral and the Castillo. The convent 
has been utilized for a post-office, and also accomodates a 
section of the police. Coming nearer El Carmen, you 
perceive first the Church of La Merced, a very plain, low, 
and massive structure. Beyond it are the cream-colored 
walls and red roof of the theatre, and further around, to 
the left, is the old convent of Santo Domingo, which is 



CEN^TRAL AMERICA. 121 

now occupied by the School of Engineers and Mechanics. 
Such are the principal points revealed by a coiip d'ceil of 
the capital. 

The present population is said to be seventy thousand, 
but the valley contains ample room for a city three times 
as large. It might be seriously damaged by earthquake 
shocks, though these have not been frequent or heavy 
for many years, but it seems beyond range of the active 
Fuego. Good stage roads run in several directions into 
the interior. Coming down from the Cerro del Carmen, 
and strolling through the city, I observed that it was 
laid out at right angles, and that the streets were broad 
and the sidewalks particularly wide for a Spanish- Ameri- 
can town. Paved with smooth flagstone, they were gen- 
erally on a level with the roadway, which always inclined 
toward the center, in order to promote surface drainage. 
The roadway was badly paved with huge blocks and 
small cobble-stones alternately. One portion of this pav- 
ing wore away or settled more quickly than the other, 
and the result was that the pavement was always rough. 
Occasionally the sidewalks were bordered with orange 
trees. Horse cars ran through the principal streets. The 
cars are small, with horse or mule teams, and barefoot 
boys frequently for conductors. The fare is five cents, 
and the voice of the bell-punch is heard, though I am 
not certain it is always punched in the presence of the 
passenger. Little paper tickets are given you, and, to 
insure your retaining them to the end of your trip, in- 
stead of throwing them away, as has been done, the man- 



122 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

agement hit upon the ingenious plan of establishing a 
small lottery, of which among the tickets are the winning 
numbers. Hacks and public carriages abound. Those 
with two horses are two dollars per hour ; with one horse, 
one dollar. The streets are arranged and numbered some- 
what like those in New York, but still more like those 
in Buenos Ayres. A central point is chosen, the south- 
west corner of the Plaza de Armas, on which stand the 
National Palace and the cathedral. Avenues run north 
and south, streets east and west, both being numbered 
consecutively. Avenues north of the central point I have 
specified have the word " north " prefixed to their names ; 
avenues running south of that point have the word 
" south " prefixed. The streets are designated as east or 
west of the avenue (called Sixth Avenue) which runs 
through the central point. Sixth Avenue, or Calle Real, 
is the chief business thoroughfare of the city. There are 
some minor streets generally named from some church or 
prominent public building situated upon them. Though 
the city is at present lighted by electricity, "the old kero- 
sene-lamp sconces have been allowed to remain attached 
to the walls. The stores and dwellings are but one story 
in height. They have large iron-grated windows and 
huge double doors of wood two or three inches thick and 
studded with big nails like the gates of a media3val castle. 
A house located at the angle of a street will have its cor- 
ner windows separated only by a slender stone pillar. 
This enlarges the outlook of the inmates, with whom 
peering and peeping into the street occupy a great deal 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 123 

of time. When a house has two stories, the upper one 
always has a neat little iron or wooden balcony to each 
window. There are some twenty churches in the city, 
and at six in the morning the din of the many-toned 
bells of different power awakes the people, and, continu- 
ing for an hour, prevents further sleep. But the bugle 
and drum calls are not nearly so frequent and enduring as 
in San Salvador and other Central American capitals. A 
few carriages course through the streets, and many horse- 
men, ox-carts, and mule trains. The Indians also com- 
pete with the beasts of burden. At the intersection of 
the principal streets you will always find these patient 
and industrious representatives of their race ready for 
any sort of porterage. For small packages they use an 
oblong framework, inclosed by rope network. This they 
bear on the back secured to their shoulders. They carry 
single large packages on the back, the strain being di- 
vided by means of ropes fastened to a stout piece of 
leather about the head. They generally travel at a fast 
trot. The weight of the burdens and the speed always 
surprise a stranger. So do the moderate charges. These 
Indians are great competitors of the ox-cart, and it is 
very curious to watch one of them trotting along the 
sidewalk with an enormous trunk upon his back. The 
market women, and people in a similar condition of life, 
carry everything upon the head. They also move along 
at a rapid pace. The Indians that abound in Guatemala 
are of very low stature, but stocky, and, of course, very 
tough. Three or four plazas invite attention. The pret- 



124 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

tiest is La Concordia, where the military band plays two 
or three evenings in the week. The shops are shallow 
and oblong, and contain a great variety of goods. The 
drug stores and book stores present an especially fine 
appearance. Many Germans and other foreigners are 
engaged in business here. Owing to the coolness of the 
climate, the shops do not open until eight o'clock, and 
the streets are never full of people before the middle of 
the day, while by nine in the evening they are quite de- 
serted. Iron letter-boxes stand at many a street corner. 
The post-office, located in one of the many old monas- 
teries confiscated by the late President Barrios, has a 
large tier of the most approved style of lock-boxes. The 
telephone abounds. The phonograph, when perfected, 
will find ready welcome. In these and other ways Guate- 
mala shows her advancement, and merits the title of 
"littlecity of Mexico." 

Though the capital possesses several forts and bar- 
racks, the military element is never obtrusive, and noth- 
ing seems to hint of a revolutionary spirit. About one 
thousand foreigners are found among the people. They 
are made welcome, and are neither hampered nor cajoled, 
as in some of the republics further south. Notwithstand- 
ing the cool temperature the native ladies do their shop- 
ping in slippers, and without their hats and cloaks, or at 
least with very thin shawls. The Indians dress in much 
coarser material, but quite as gayly, and, moreover, go 
barefoot. 

Most of the public offices are grouped around the 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 125 

Plaza de Armas. On the north side is the Municipalidad, 
or City Hall ; on the south is a row of small shops, with 
the President's palace at the western angle ; on the east 
are the cathedral and the archiepiscopal palace ; and on 
the west are the N"ational Palace and two of the barracks. 
On the south side the sidewalk passes under cover of the 
buildings there in the manner known in South and Cen- 
tral America as portales. The tramcars start from the 
plaza. Next to the President's palace are more barracks, 
and adjacent to the cathedral is the market. The south- 
western corner is the central point for the nomenclature 
of the streets, previously mentioned. The Plaza de Armas 
is large, but not beautiful. In the center is a garden 
surrounded by a broad promenade. ISTo large trees give 
shade, but the stone-bordered plots are filled with ex- 
quisite flowers and pretty plants with colored leaves. 
Many shrubs contrast with a few evergreens. Fountains 
disport in large stone basins, artificial grottoes surprise 
you, and the center of the plaza is occupied by a curious 
old square stone tower or temple, in which are the re- 
mains of an equestrian stone statue of Charles IV. The 
sculpturing is coarse and crude, however, like that in the 
angles of the temple. On the roof is a stand of four 
electric lights, which looks a little incongruous, but not 
more so than the barbed -iron fence by which the park is 
inclosed. The shops on the south side are but a single 
story high. So, indeed, are the National Palace and the 
City Hall. These have portales, with arched fronts and 
tile roofs. The Government offices demand no special 



126 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

mention, being plain and rather bare of furniture. The 
President's house is not exteriorly effective. It shares 
the general one-storiedness. A seated company of guards 
lines the entrance to the National Palace, and officers in 
blue coats and red trousers lounge about in every direc- 
tion. The archiepiscopal palace adjoins the cathedral, 
and is one of the most presentable buildings in the city. 
Its gates exhibit a formidable array of brass knockers and 
locks, hinges and nails. The stone above is carved with 
the miter, keys, etc. The buildings surrounding the plaza 
have green, white, and drab-tinted walls, and pretty stucco 
ornaments in low relief. 

The cathedral is very interesting. Together with the 
bishop's palace, it covers an entire block. It is ap- 
proached by a terrace of rough, dark stone, on the edge 
of which stand four colossal figures of saints, who, I 
regret to say, have a very disreputable look. This arises 
from the coarseness of the stone and from the fact of 
their being battered and broken, as though by several 
first-class earthquakes. Several pillars with urns atop 
add a Koman effect. The fagade of the cathedral is 
handsome and well proportioned. It is carved from a 
softish yellow stone. Two square towers arise. The 
segment which joins them contains a pediment, and this 
again includes a clock with bronze figures and hands. 
Of three huge doors only two, at the sides, are used. In 
the center are round pillars, and in a central alcove above 
one of the doors is a large alto-relievo figure of John the 
Baptist. The side walls have fluted columns attached. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 127 

The generally pleasing effect is enhanced by much orna- 
mental carving. The towers are filled with bells, and the 
south one has, besides, a glass-faced Parisian clock. In- 
side the cathedral you are impressed with the excellent 
light, cleanliness, and good condition of everything. The 
great size of the church is at first unappreciated, because 
of four parallel rows of square pillars extending through 
its length to the grand altar, thus making five aisles, 
none of which are very wide, while the arched ceilings 
seem to lessen their extent. With the exception of the 
grand altar everything is simple. There are eight gilt 
side altars, filled with the usual assemblage of decorated 
wooden saints. Over the center aisle depends a row of 
crystal chandeliers containing candles. The ceiling is or- 
namented by strips of blue and white bunting, gold edged 
and star sprinkled. The pavement is stone. Against the 
pillars hang many paintings, some old, some modern. 
The stucco work upon the ceiling and the interior of the 
dome is good. The same is to be said of the medallions 
and scroll ornaments in pure white plaster. The grand 
altar beneath the dome is of white marble and gold, and 
all the accessories are either gold or silver. Near the 
altar is a seat of state for the bishop. At one side is a 
great pyramid of angels, surmounted by a figure of the 
Virgin. The wooden images are clad in gauze and gay- 
hued muslin, with silver-tinsel tiaras and long wings. 
The Virgin wears a fine velvet gown embroidered with 
gold thread. She stands upon a crescent moon. A near 
inspection of some apparently handsome columns in the 



128 ' CENTRAL AMERICA. 

altar showed them to be of wood covered with silver 
paper. The two arms of the cross-like cathedral were 
full of saints, pictures, and altars. Behind the high altar 
was the choir, and above the choir was a fine large organ, 
the gray metal pipes of which appeared to good effect 
behind the colors of the altar. The choir had seats of 
carved wood, with paintings behind them. The reading- 
desk was minutely inlaid with pearls in various intricate 
patterns. Upon it rested the huge vellum-bound Latin 
missal and music books. Service was in progress during 
my visit, but only a few poor Indian women were present. 
The market, which occupies the adjoining square, has 
large gates at the sides and corners. The market women 
seemed to be either of pure Indian blood or something 
akin to it. Around both the exterior and interior were 
little shops full of alluring goods worthy of English or 
German importation. Other shops were devoted each to 
ft special branch of domestic manufacture. The market 
was well supplied with running water, and its center was 
occupied by extensive sheds. "Whenever the venders are 
exposed to the sun they spread small straw mats above 
their heads on poles. The vegetable produce, coming 
from two zones, was very profuse. It was in most cases 
heaped upon the flag pavement in a circle, in the midst 
of which squatted the seller. In one quarter I observed 
a large cooking-place where cheap meals were served to 
the poor people employed in and about the market. The 
Indian girls, though scantily, coarsely, and dirtily dressed, 
did not fail to wear finger-rings and gold chains. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 129 

Among the offices and shops in the same block with 
the City Hall, I found the " Administration of the Fu- 
neral Service," fastened to the walls whereof, by that 
irony of fate which is universal, was a bill-board of the 
theatre. What is called the New . Cemetery — it is but 
seven years old — is situated at the southwestern angle of 
the capital, and about a mile from the center of the city. 
You can go half the distance by tramway. After that 
you have to walk, unless you take a carriage for the 
whole distance. You proceed by a broad, unpaved road, 
lined with the mud huts of the poorer classes. Leaving 
the fort of San Jose upon the left, you soon reach the 
cemetery's main entrance, simply, but gracefully built, 
with immense iron gates. Inside, to the right are rooms 
for the mourners, to the left are the rooms for the recep- 
tion of dead bodies. Proceeding farther you encounter, 
to the left, a high, stuccoed wall, washed white ; to the 
right, a row of mural sepulchres, six tiers in height, with 
a corridor and pleasing fa9ade. The cemetery covers a 
large area of nearly level meadowland, whence you look 
up to the volcanoes Agua, Fuego, and Acatanengo. Ow- 
ing to the slope of the city toward the east, only a few 
buildings and roofs appear. This graveyard is treeless 
save for cypresses. These are relieved by flowering 
shrubs. The broad, paved paths are at right angles. 
Fountains and large circular basins, surrounded by pretty 
flower-plots, stand at each corner of this necropolis, and 
also at the center and immediately within the gate. The 
pathAvays are lined with oblong vaults, monuments, tern- 



130 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

pies, and cenotaphs, sometimes in Grecian or Gothic ar- 
chitecture, and of brick, stucco, or wood. A few are in 
marble, and many others have marble fronts. Those in 
wood or plaster are painted in weak imitation of marble, 
and have a cheap look. Sometimes the oblong monu- 
ments have bodies underneath them in layers, the mode 
adopted in the famous Pere-la-Chaise. Sometimes bodies 
are kept above ground, and placed inside the monuments 
in tiers. Occasionally the tombs are open and contain 
little altars and an iron trap leading to the bodies below. 
These mortuary fabrics are usually placed very near each 
other and are not always separated by fences. The 
American plan of having large family plots, filled with 
trees, shrubs, and flowers, is unknown. A small and 
slender broken marble column was erected to the late 
General Barrios. It rose from a heap of rough marble 
rocks, the whole resting upon a great square, wooden 
cenotaph. The latter was painted to resemble marble — 
but it resembled nothing but painted wood. The six-tier 
tomb wall contained but few bodies — the fear of earth- 
quake evidently rendering unpopular that form of sepul- 
ture. I was sure that this intuition was correct when I 
walked further into the cemetery, and, seeing a long, nar- 
row, and very low building, entered it, and descended by 
a flight of stone steps at one end. These led me to a 
passage which terminated with a similar row of stone 
steps at the other end. The passage was lined with walls 
of tombs, five tiers each in height. I must have passed 
between many hundred niches, not one of which was va- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 131 

cant. The ends of several were sealed with slabs of black 
or white marble, on which were carved the name and 
death date of the occupant. The birth or age was very 
seldom given — a noticeable peculiarity of all Spanish- 
American cemeteries. Scripture texts, mottoes, senti- 
ments, and so forth, are all omitted. As a general rule 
nothing is inscribed excepting the name, marked on the 
customary plaster by stencil plates. Another curious 
fact is that children and babies are not buried with 
adults. Near one end of the underground niches was a 
collection of miniature cenotaphs, monuments, and slabs, 
exactly imitating the larger ones in other places. This 
was the children's department ! On the highest knoll of 
the cemetery was a lofty stone obelisk, erected by the 
country in memory of a popular general, named Zavala, 
who died a few years ago. 

Keturning to the city, I visited the pretty little plaza 
of Concordia. This is a park occupying an entire square, 
surrounded by a massive brick fence, and nobly stocked 
with palms, bananas, cacti, shrubs, flowers, and large 
trees. Irrigation is furnished by means of brick borders, 
so constructed as to hold water. Broad paths extend 
quite around the plaza, next to the wall, and here all the 
beait monde of Guatemala promenade when the band 
plays — in other words, on Wednesday and Saturday even- 
ings, and on Sunday afternoons. The city possesses three 
good military bands — representing different battalions — ■ 
and every night you may hear one of them, and fre- 
quently two, exerting themselves in melodious competi- 



132 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

tion. One of them may be stationed in the plaza I have 
just been describing, and the other in the Plaza de Ar- 
mas. The performance lasts only an hour, however. 
Tour pieces are generally given — the lighter compositions 
of France and Germany usually having preference. ISTa- 
tional fandangoes and Mexican airs are also popular, and 
share in the applause and encores. 

The water used by the inhabitants of Guatemala is 
brought by two aqueducts from different directions, tap- 
ping rivers at a distance of five or ten miles. Inside the 
city are twenty public reservoirs whence running water is 
drawn and where public washing is done. These reser- 
voirs were built by President Barrios. They are made of 
brick, and some of them, circular in form, with steps, 
fountains, and pavilions, are ornamental as well as useful. 
Around the reservoirs small sinks, for laundry use, are 
made, and on the stone bottom of these buttons are too 
apt to be removed from resistless linen by infuriate 
washerwomen. " First come, first served " is the motto 
of the latter — generally Indians — at these little stone 
wash-tubs. Clothes are speedily dried by laying them 
on the grass. Large open-air swimming baths abound. 
There are also public bath houses with hot and cold 
water. 

The Hippodrome is at a little distance from the ex- 
treme northern end of the city. Tramway rails have 
been laid to its gates, but the cars run there only when 
races are in progress. You can walk there on a broad, 
tree-lined avenue, which might almost be called an " ala- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 133 

meda," between extensive meadows, and with only a few 
curious two-story houses on each side. These houses 
have wide piazzas all round their second story, and were 
built and rented by President Barrios as outlooks on 
race days. The Hippodrome is simply a half-mile racing 
track. This also was laid out and its circular music pa- 
vilion was built by Barrios. The grand stand contains a 
restaurant and a bar-room. The track is grass-grown, 
and is used only for running races. The views from the 
Hippodrome of the surrounding hills and volcanoes are 
very fine. At the opposite end of the city, near the rail- 
way station, is a goodly sized bull-ring, with low brick 
and plaster walls. Bull -fights are given there on the 
afternoons of Sundays and feast days, whenever the neces- 
sary chulos, picadors, and matadors are in town. At least 
one of these " seasons " is given here every year, a com- 
pany coming from Spain for that purpose. 

The general hospital is situated on the western edge 
of the city. It is a large building — one story, of course — 
well arranged and suitably equipped. Its good condi- 
tion, its perfect cleanliness, and its many court-yards, 
smiling with flowers, are strikingly delightful to a 
stranger. A block distant is the substantial quadrangle 
of the medical school, with a large flower-garden along 
its eastern front, hedged in by a high iron fence. 

The National Institute and the University of Guate- 
mala stand pre-eminent in the educational system of 
Central America. The first is used as a preparatory 
school for the other. Both are under Government con- 



134 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

trol. The charges are very moderate. The institute 
has about forty professors and three hundred pupils; 
the university about half these numbers, respectively. 
The buildings occupy the whole of a large square, in- 
cluding the botanical and zoological gardens, which are 
the institute's exclusive property. Both edifices are of 
handsome stucco, with tinted walls, and the institute 
has two stories, while the university has but one, besides 
being very much smaller in other ways. A row of small 
orange trees, next the sidewalk, entirely surrounds these 
buildings. The institute is arranged in two large quad- 
rangles; the university in one — much smaller. Both 
the court-yards contain stone basins and pretty fount- 
ains. The lower story of the institute includes the 
offices and apartments of the director and the study 
and lecture rooms. The inner and smaller quadrangle 
is devoted to the dormitories and dining-rooms. You 
pass from the street through a fine bronze gate into 
the large court-yard, the walls of whose corridors are 
everywhere hung with maps ; ethnographical, botanical, 
and zoological plates ; architectural types ; and so forth — 
an admirable means for keeping valuable subjects before 
the eyes of the pupils. Up-stairs are more lecture rooms, 
besides the library and the museum. The library does 
not at present contain more than four thousand vol- 
umes. Several languages are represented, and ancient 
and modern works are included. The museum is a 
large room in which are various small collections of 
curiosities and products of the country. A good assort- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 135 

ment of native birds are well mounted, but the nomen- 
clature is not so good. Among the birds I observed a 
male and a female quetzal, the famous national emblem of 
Guatemala, always represented on a scroll inscribed with 
the date of Guatemala's independence, September 15, 1821. 
The two sexes are about the same size and color, save 
that the male has by far the longer tail. They resembled 
small parrots, and had very glossy green and yellow tails 
and black wings, with very bright crimson breasts. The 
collections of minerals and woods were small but repre- 
sentative. A case of Indian pottery, gods, ornaments, 
and so forth was especially interesting. The botanical 
and zoological gardens were both good, but, curiously 
enough, they are never open to the public, and their 
members are not marked, or in any way denoted. The 
zoological collection is varied, though small. There is 
accommodation for many more animals, but those on 
hand are not restricted to native specimens. There 
was no example of the quetzal, however, as this bird 
will not live in captivity. A large American grizzly 
bear presented himself. In the University building, 
besides the lecture rooms and examination hall, are the 
national library and its adjacent reading-rooms. The 
latter are provided with magazines and other periodicals 
of the day. The library occupies a large room, long, 
narrow, and high ceiled. It looks as though it might 
once have been a chapel. It is intended to have, around 
all the walls, three tiers of cases containing books, reached 
by stairs and galleries, but at present only three sides are 



136 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

filled. The librarian informed me that there were now 
in the library about forty-five thousand volumes, embrac- 
ing, in many languages, general literature, classics, stand- 
ard authorities, and books of the day, properly so called. 

December 8th was the Church holy day of " La Con- 
cepcion," one of the two hundred festivals of the year. It 
is observed as a public holiday by ever3^body excepting 
Government officials. The churches were crowded with 
women. Men dressed in their finest filled the streets, the 
billiard-rooms, and the drinking-saloons. The festival was 
in reality announced at noon of the 7th by a most terrific 
clanging of all the church bells in the city. This din was 
repeated all the afternoon and half of the night. It was 
accompanied by a great deal of rocket-firing, and, as the 
rockets cost twenty cents apiece, their sale would seem to 
form a not unlucrative industry. At night the churches 
were decorated with flags and rows of colored lanterns. 
Grass was strewed upon the pavement before them, and 
special choral services were held. Almost every house 
bore candles upon its window-sills. The feast day of 
Guadelupe, an especially Indian fete^ occurred a few days 
later. There are, as I have said, a score of churches in 
Guatemala, though Catholic churches in Central America, 
as well as elsewhere, are apt to repeat themselves to a great 
extent. The Church of San Francisco has high, massive 
white stucco and brick walls. The inside consists of one 
large nave with curved roof, and has a most neat and 
chaste appearance, being ornamented in gold and white, 
with black and white bunting displayed upon the ceiling. 




Type of Coast Indian. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 137 

The higli altar is lavishly rich in gold and silver orna- 
ments. The Church of Santo Domingo is of very pe- 
culiar architecture, the high and square fa9ade being 
supplied with neither pediment nor towers. The inte- 
rior is exceedingly large and numerously provided with 
side altars and paintings. The Virgin above the high 
altar is magnificently dressed and covered with jewels. 
From the terrace of this church you obtain glorious views 
of the great volcanoes. 

Before leaving Guatemala we made an excursion to 
one of the old capitals, called Antigua Guatemala. Dili- 
gences take one there and also to Quezaltenango, the 
second city in size and commercial importance in the re- 
public. No other diligence roads run from the capital to 
the interior, though there are plenty of mule trails. The 
stages are all built on one model. They are long, narrow 
boxes, holding six persons on their three transverse seats. 
The driver occupies a high seat just in front of the roof 
of the stage. Horses and mules are intermingled, and the 
composite team of six is driven three abreast. Antigua 
Guatemala is about twenty-five miles distant from the 
capital in a southwest direction. The stage leaves Guate- 
mala at 6 or 7 A. M. and calls at the residence of every 
booked passenger. That is the reason that the moment 
of departure is regulated by a sliding scale. We left the 
city from the side of the fort of San Jose, and followed a 
broad unpaved road between a double row of mud huts, 
through long straggling suburbs. Indians met us going 

toward the city at their accustomed jog-trot, and bearing 
10 



138 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

burdens for the metropolitan market. The men wore 
clean white suits. The women were in gayly colored 
frocks, and many of them had their babies slung upon 
their backs in shawls. The enormous loads which all 
bore excited my amazement. The men usually carried 
their burdens on their backs, the women on their heads. 
It consisted mainly of market produce in baskets. Some of 
these people looked bright and smiling, but most of them 
had a heavy, stupid expression, like beasts of burden. 

Our road took us through vast corn fields. The fences 
were of bamboo, cactus, and ox-horn. Excellent views of 
Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango presented themselves, after 
we had mounted the hills commanding the city of Guate- 
mala. We passed through the Indian village of Mixco, 
lying high up on the hills, with its church, plaza, and 
short, paved street. A ridge of hills now separated us 
from the valley of the capital. We passed many ox-carts, 
a few pack-trains, and still fewer native horsemen. Some- 
times the road had been cut from a clayey hill-side, the 
ground having been comparatively soft at the time, but 
subsequently hardening. We proceeded through one or 
two mud villages, and threaded a long narrow gorge, in 
some places but little wider than the road, with steep 
wooded walls on each side. Coffee lands began to be vis- 
ible. Agua was now quite near, and just before us 
smoked the chalky-topped Fuego. A little to the right 
rose the highest mountain in Central America, the extinct 
Acatenango. We stopped at a little place named San 
Rafael — merely a collection of huts — to take breakfast. 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 139 

This is the regular breakfasting place where all stages 
halt, and four, owned by different persons, were there as- 
sembled, all bearing parties to Antigua, that being the 
chief point of transit from the capital. In a tidy little 
hut, surrounded by beautiful terraced flower gardens, we 
had found tables, on which a very good breakfast was 
served by Indian girls. While we were eating it we had 
plenty of time to admire the green hedges, the violet beds, 
the summer-houses, and the well-brushed paths. This 
meal renewed our vivacity and enabled us to reach Anti- 
gua about one o'clock in the afternoon, or about six hours 
after starting, including the pause for breakfast. 

Upon entering Antigua we passed a neat stone fount- 
ain and basin and the ruins of a massive old church, and 
clattered up a roughly paved street to the best hotel. The 
town does not contain more than twenty thousand inhab- 
itants, but it is greatly spread out, and covers the nearly 
level bottom of the valley, bounded by the slopes of the 
three great volcanoes. The churches and a few of the 
public buildings were destroyed by earthquakes over a 
hundred years ago. Before that time there was a still 
older capital about three miles south, situated between the 
volcanoes Agua and Fuego and named Ciudad Vieja. 
This was ruined by a great eruption of water from Agua. 
Then the people reared Antigua, and, upon this being de- 
stroyed, built the present capital, Guatemala, sometimes 
called ISTueva Guatemala. Antigua is built at right angles 
and has the same general appearance as the capital. The 
plaza has, however, upon one side the Municipalidad and 



140 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

upon the opposite side the Palacio Nacional. The former 
is two stories in height and has stone columns in front. 
The very low and very massive stone walls and pillars of 
both these ancient buildings command attention. They, 
as well as the old churches, were built during the old 
Spanish rule, and still bear the carved arms of Leon and 
Castile — two castles and two lions rampant. In the city 
hall the troops on guard presented a most extraordinary 
appearance, their uniform being duck as to material and 
blood-red as to color. It called to mind both Mephis- 
topheles and certain scenes in The Black Crook. On the 
eastern side of the plaza stood the old cathedral, whit- 
ened and in good repair, however, and with recent archi- 
tectural additions. On the western side were shop-por- 
tales. I was sorry to see the square marred with many 
cheap and dilapidated huts and booths. They were used 
as shops, and as the city derived a considerable revenue 
from them it was easy to comprehend why such disfig- 
urement was allowed. In strolling about the city one is 
apt to discover an old, carved fountain or basin or por- 
tion of a building. The carving thereon may be rude, 
but it is expressive and interesting. Perhaps the chief 
interest, after all, lies in the old ruined churches and con- 
vents. These are all of stone, or, at least, faced with 
stone. Some of the walls, whether of brick or stone, 
show great durability, and the carving is commendable. 
Everything seemed to have been built with a view of re- 
sisting, instead of yielding to earthquake shocks. In no 
other seismic quarter have I ever seen such low and mas- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 141 

sive stone walls, such stumpy and gigantic pillars, such 
depressed domes, such flat arches. But even these could 
not withstand the earthquakes of 1773, which destroyed 
the city, together with eight thousand of its inhabitants. 
From the plaza a splendid yiew may be had of the vol- 
canoes. Standing near the basin of the quaint old stone 
fountain I swept in all the environing country. In the 
marvelously clear air, Agua seemed near at hand, its sides 
covered with pasturage and beautiful plantations of coffee, 
corn, and beans. Agua may easily be ascended from this 
point. You start in the afternoon, sleep at a small In- 
dian village about half-way up, and reach the summit 
early the following morning. On the top is an enormous 
crater. The neighboring active volcano of Fuego has 
never been ascended. 

The ancient churches in this locality, as well as the 
modern churches, are recommended for their artistic 
work, and really the columns, friezes, pediments, and or- 
naments generally are very well worth notice. Among 
the ruins are to be found quite a number of churches 
divided, broken, hurled down, cracked, split, and scaled 
in the most extraordinary fashion. The two great " show 
sights " of the city are the Church of San Francisco and 
the Capucine nunnery. The former had a monastery 
connected with it, and was one of the largest edifices and 
institutions of the kind in all Central or South America. 
Not all of the walls remain, and there is very little be- 
sides ; but in the general style of the architecture, in por- 
tions that remain of frescoed walls and stuccoed ceilings, 



142 CENTRAL AMERICA. 

with their religious and political insignia, coats-of-arms, 
and so forth, and in the many connected buildings whose 
original character can generally be inferred from their 
form, size, and arrangement, you see enough to realize the 
magnitude of the pile, as it once stood. In the remain- 
ing arches you always see large cracks at the outer angle, 
and when there are two stories the same kind of fissure 
extends from window to window. Enough columns re- 
main for one to make his inferences. The domes and 
arches seem to have fared worst. Frequently, in making, 
your investigations, you are surprised to see images of the 
saints still occupying their niches in the fa9ade of some 
old church. In each of these wrecked edifices you will 
find an Indian family living, the members of which will 
serve as escorts and explain many things for a '•^ gratifica- 
ciony Altogether, Antigua is a dead city. The streets 
have no life. Except upon the plaza, no business is trans- 
acted, and even that is of very petty nature. Antigua is 
about one thousand feet above Nueva Guatemala, and is 
said to have a still more agreeable climate. It is not a 
little strange, however, that this climate, showing such 
great changes during the twenty-four hours — freezing at 
night and roasting at three in the afternoon — should be 
healthy ; yet it is so for the natives, and it becomes so for 
foreigners after a little time ; though at first one may be 
troubled with colds and rheumatisms. 

In returning to the capital we took a road further to 
the south, which had a very long, steep hill. The method 
of going down these hills is not at all reassuring to the 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 143 

timid traveler. The stages are old and rickety, the tires 
being half off, and the wheels and springs so uncertain as 
to be bound with cord. The harness, moreover, was 
often re- enforced by string, and the brakes did not always 
act when called upon to do so. The declivity was not 
only steep and long, but also crooked and full of holes. 
Still there was nothing for it but to clatter down it at a 
frightful speed, coming to sudden halts now and then, to 
replace the harness, to tie up a chain with rope, or to lash 
a piece of wood between the break and the tire ! The 
jolting was terrible, for the boy-drivers never select their 
road. The dust resembled that Egyptian darkness which 
could be felt. This of course prevented the views we had 
of the richly cultivated valley below us and of the distant 
city of Guatemala from being enjoyed in all their fullness. 
We halted at Bancena, a half-way station composed of 
mud-huts, for breakfast. On leaving we soon reached 
the valley, and passed a few plantations, the best of which 
seemed to extend toward the sea-coast. A good wide, 
hard, but dusty road took us the rest of the way to Guate- 
mala, through a barren, brush-covered, uninviting country. 
We reached the hotel at noon, having occupied an hour 
less time than on our journey thence. 

And now my charming companion and I had to part, 
he returning to New York by way of Panama and New 
Orleans, and I by way of San Francisco and New Or- 
leans. At half -past seven, on the morning of December 
13th, I left Guatemala by railway, and arrived at half- 
past one at San Jose. A Spanish steamer going south 



144: CENTRAL AMERICA. 

was in port, but not the Pacific Mail, though it was the 
day for its arrival. I put up at a ramshackle hotel, a 
very bad one, on the beach, not fifty feet from the surf, 
and spent the three succeeding days in waiting for the 
steamer which was to take me first to Acapulco, next to 
Mazatlan, and then to San Francisco. The noise of the 
surf was almost deafening. The breakers beat with ter- 
rible force upon the beach at high tide, and jar every- 
thing in the hotel, including one's self. The town is 
largely patronized as a sea-bathing resort. In the water 
the women wear old calico dresses ; the men wear tights 
only. Evidently nothing similar to the Coney Island 
beach patrol obtains here. Though the swell is high 
and strong, the beach slopes very gradually and is ex- 
ceedingly smooth. I left at three in the afternoon of 
the 16th for Champerico, seventy-six miles distant. The 
steamer was full of passengers, nearly all being bound for 
San Francisco. The low rate of the Pacific Mail Com- 
pany, in competition with the transcontinental railways, 
caused a great flux of travel. The coast was low and 
wooded all the way to Champerico, with distant views 
of volcanic peaks, a scattered half-dozen of which extend 
to the westward of the great peaks of Acatenango, Agua, 
and Fuego. Agua towered high above the fleecy clouds, 
a splendid sight all the afternoon. 

We reached Champerico about 9 p. m., a very good 
run. It has the same general appearance from the shore 
as San Jose, only the iron pier is much longer. It is 
more than half a mile in length ! In the distant back- 



CENTRAL AMERICA. 145 

ground there are no sucli splendid peaks as at San Jose, 
yet the volcanoes afford fine views. A narrow-gauge rail- 
way runs from Champerico to Retalhulen, the capital of 
the province of like name, about thirty miles distant. 
Quezaltenango is about the same distance off, and is also 
the capital of a province similarly named. It is reached 
by a stage which runs thrice each way weekly. We re- 
mained but a few hours at Champerico, and then left for 
our next stopping-place, Acapulco, in Mexico, five hun- 
dred and eighteen miles distant. 

The morning of December 17th showed me the distant 
mountain ranges of Soconusco, in the province of Chia- 
pas, Mexico, and also distinctly informed me that my 
tour of two thousand miles, including ten weeks, in Cen- 
tral America, was an event of the past. 



II. 
A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

It is not a little singular that while so much time, 
labor, and life have been spent in exploring the secluded 
and savage parts of central Asia and Africa, more atten- 
tion has not been bestowed upon the semi-civilized and 
easily accessible countries of Farther India. Until within 
a comparatively few years our knowledge of these countries 
might almost have been comprised in the words "Sia- 
mese Twins " and " Oochin-China Chanticleers." No 
book in any language gives anything like an adequate 
description of nature and man as found there to-day. 
The ethnology, philology, and archaeology of these regions 
are scarcely better understood at present than they were 
in the remote era of Ptolemy the Greek geographer. 

Probably few Americans are aware that since the ex- 
humation of the buried cities of Assyria by Botta and 
Layard nothing has occurred so startling, or which has 
thrown so much light on Eastern art, as the discovery, 
about thirty years ago, of the ruined cities of Cambodia 
by Mouhot and Bastian — cities containing palaces and 
temples as splendid and stupendous as any in Egypt, 



1^ 



^^ 



^'^j^vtF^^^ ' ^- > 

















A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 147 

Greece, or Eome. Though historically these relics may 
not be of such importance to us as those of Nineyeh and 
Babylon, yet, from an ethnological point of view, they 
scarcely admit of overestimation. It may be said that 
few countries present a more striking picture of lapse 
from the highest pinnacle of greatness to the last degree 
of insignificance and barbarism than Cambodia; nor is 
there a nation at the present day which can show so few 
traditions or produce so few clews to her ancient his- 
tory. For beyond the half-fabulous records of the Chi- 
nese historians and a few legends which, it is to be 
feared, are more the invention of a subtle yet bar- 
baric priesthood than an authentic narrative handed 
down from generation to generation, we have no ac- 
count relative to this once powerful but now degraded 
country. 

An ardent love of adventure and an enthusiastic de- 
sire to explore unknown countries impelled me to travel 
amid these unique regions. My tastes had already re- 
ceived the stimulus of partial gratification by two years 
of sojourn in Asia and the adjacent islands, when on the 
occasion of a third visit to Singapore in the month of 
December, 1871, I first heard detailed descriptions of 
the wonderful ruins in Cambodia. This determined me 
to extend my tour in that direction. Bangkok, in Siam, 
became the starting point, whence I proposed to journey 
entirely across the Indo-Chinese peninsula to Saigon, in 
Cochin-China. In these days of much travel and many 
books, it is hardly necessary to refer to well-known feat- 



148 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

ures of Singapore or Bangkok, which cities are connected 
by a semi-monthly line of steamers. 

After seeing everything of interest in southern and 
western Siam, the proposed overland excursion to Cam- 
bodia claimed attention. I had invited an American 
missionary and our consul at Bangkok to accompany me. 
We thought a month only would be requisite to accom- 
plish the entire journey to the ruined cities, whence my 
companions would return to Bangkok, while I should go 
on alone to Saigon. I spent much time in endeavoring 
to obtain a Cambodian interpreter, one speaking English 
or even Siamese, who was willing to accompany us, but 
met with no success. However, the missionary's servant 
was a Cambodian by birth, and, though he had passed 
nearly all his life in Siam, still remembered sufficient of 
his native tongue to be of considerable service to us. We 
took an assortment of medicines, especially a liberal sup- 
ply of quinine, five grains of which were to be dissolved 
in our coffee regularly every morning. The offensive, 
and more especially the defensive, weapons of the party 
comprehended two revolvers and three large bowie- 
knives. We also carried a few scientific instruments, 
writing and drawing materials, and maps of the country 
(which, by the by, proved so incorrect as to be of scarce- 
ly any use to us) ; and, knowing that a penchant for 
accepting presents is not exclusively an American pecul- 
iarity, I also packed in my waterproof bag a few gifts for 
the King of Cambodia, the Governor of Siamrap, and 
some other great men. Provisions were taken in tin 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 149 

cans. Money was carried in several small packages, 
though our letters were quite adequate to secure us every 
hospitality and attention. The letters were simply official 
orders written in the vernacular idiom, with the great 
seal of the Foreign Office attached, from the. Siamese 
Minister of Foreign Affairs to the governors of the prov- 
inces through which it would be necessary for us to pass. 
To our passports chiefly we were indebted for the success 
of the expedition. In Farther India, and, in fact, most 
countries of the East, the natives humbly reverence au- 
thority and its enjoinments, and will readily find ways 
and means of complying with a governmental order, 
when the demands, bribes, or threats of an unknown, 
unrecommended private traveler would avail nothing. 
Upon the governors of provinces remote from the me- 
tropolis and the ruling monarchs we were dependent for 
our means of transportation — elephants, horses, buffaloes, 
carts, boats, servants, and guides — and everywhere on our 
journey, when the passports were produced, we were 
received with distinguished courtesy and consideration. 
But I am anticipating. 

Everything is ready and we are at last off. There 
are three boats — two for the travelers and one for their 
servants and provisions. The great floating city of 
Bangkok, steeped in spectral moonlight and kaleido- 
scoped with ten thousand colored lanterns, presents an 
appearance at once weird and picturesque, as we swing 
away from the consulate wharf, with our prows headed 
up the whirling Menam. The boatmen break into wild. 



150 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

rude songs, to which their dipping oars keep time ; the 
distant howl of the pariah dog proclaims its quest of 
midnight prey; strains re-echo from many a Chinese 
booth, and the softening atmosphere improves them into 
a sweetness not their own ; and so, standing upon deck, 
with night above us and mystery around, we wave adieu 
to Bangkok, that Venice of the East, and float onward 
toward the very heart of Cambodia — and our desire. 

After a not uninteresting journey of two or three 
weeks, we arrived at Siamrap, which we found to be a 
town of about a thousand inhabitants, pleasantly situ- 
ated upon the banks of a small river, four miles from 
the ruins at Angkor. Our letter from the Foreign Office 
at Bangkok being forwarded to the governor, was re- 
ceived with distinguished ceremony on a golden salver, 
and amid a conspicuous display of white umbrellas. 
Being presently invited to an interview, we entered 
the palace inclosure through an immense wooden gate- 
way, preceded by the interpreter, and followed by all 
our servants. We marched fearlessly past the gaping 
mouth of a large iron cannon, for we knew no danger 
was to be apprehended, since its bore had been converted 
into a peaceful aviary — its throat of thunder into a 
throat of song. The governor received us in a long 
and broad veranda, and waved us graciously to some 
chairs, himself taking one opposite to us. Behind 
him, on the floor, were some red velvet cushions ele- 
gantly embroidered with gold thread, and facing these 
were placed the most magnificent betel boxes, cigar 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 151 

cases, and cuspidors we had as yet seen; they were 
made of pure Siamese gold and studded with costly 
gems. There was also a set of beautiful tea-things. 
Along the walls of the veranda were arranged rows of 
guns and swords. At the right were royal umbrellas, 
long state swords, a clock, and some glass candlesticks. 
The walls were hung with grotesque Chinese paintings. 
Grouped about the governor were a hundred or more 
prostrate officers and attendants. The rank of each 
might be divined by his dress, the material of which 
his betel boxes were manufactured, and his proximity 
to his lord and master. After conversing for some 
time, the governor ordered his band of fourteen instru- 
mentalists to perform for our amusement. Cambodian 
music- consists principally of noise — of the shrill and 
penetrating sounds produced by flageolets and other 
peculiarly formed reed instruments, and the banging, 
clanging, and rattling of tom-toms, cymbals, musical 
wheels, and bamboo sticks. All the musicians play their 
loudest, most interminable notes in full blast, at the 
same time, and for half an hour without intermission. 
The character of the music, however, is often sweet, 
sometimes wailing and rather dirge-like, although always 
played in quick time. The instruments themselves are 
capable of considerable melody if played with reference 
to tune and time, modulation and expression. While 
performing, the musicians sit upon the floor in rows, 
close together; there does not appear to be any par- 
ticular leader. 



152 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

The total distance we had traveled from Bangkok was 
about three hundred miles. The Governor of Siamrap 
having provided us with elephants, we started for the 
ruins of Angkor. We took but little baggage with us, 
being rather inpatient now that we were nearing the main 
object of the expedition, the Ultima Thiile of our hopes. 
So passed we silently along until, in about an hour's time, 
emerging from the dense forest, we caught, as in a vision, 
a glimpse of that of which we had come in quest. A gi- 
gantic row of columned galleries cast its deep shadow to 
the edge of a sheet of water fringed with lotus plants, and, 
far beyond, three or four immense pagodas towered above 
glitteriag groves of cocoa and areca palms. The emotion 
awakened by these solemn and decaying monuments 
of a vanished race had indeed something of the bright 
unnaturalness of a dream. My heart was in my mouth 
as the Cambodian driver, turning toward the howdah, 
exclaimed with proud lips and flashing eyes, '•^ Naglcon 
Wat!" for we were then at the very portals of the famous 
*' city of monasteries," and not far distant was Angkor the 
Great ! 

And now, having arrived safely at the old capital, let 
us take a brief glance at the geography and what little is 
known of the history of Cambodia. When Angkor was at 
its height in the fourteenth century, Cambodia probably 
occupied nearly all of the Indo-Chinese peninsula. K"a- 
tive records indicate that the history of Cambodia com- 
mences about A. D. 200. We read of the army of seven- 
ty thousand war elephants, two hundred thousand horse- 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 153 

men, six hundred thousand foot soldiers, and incalculable 
treasures. Twenty kings are said to have paid tribute to 
it. At first the inhabitants led a roving life. They say 
they gave civilization to Siam, and we know Siam was 
for some time tributary to Cambodia. The name first 
occurs in Chinese history in A. d. 618, when it was a 
tributary of China in connection with all southeastern 
Asia. During the Tang dynasty Cambodia was a very 
flourishing state. The capital had twenty thousand houses, 
and many of the palaces were overlaid with gold and 
adorned with ivory. There were thirty cities, each with 
one thousand houses. It was the most civilized portion of 
the peninsula, and its riches became a proverb. About 
the year 1400 the Cambodians united with the Burmese to 
crush the Siamese, but the latter recovering themselves 
prepared to invade Cambodia, and after a terrible war suc- 
ceeded in conquering the people — killing the king, destroy- 
ing and mutilating the city of Angkor, and so devastat- 
ing the country that it has never to this day recovered. 

Even two hundred years ago Cambodia was thrice its 
present size ; but now it is bounded on the north by 
Siam and the Laos States, on the west by Siam and the 
Gulf of Siam, on the south by French Cochin-China, and 
on the east by Annam and the Makong River. It is per- 
haps one hundred miles in diameter, and the bisection of 
the one hundred and fifth parallel of east longitude with 
the twelfth parallel of north latitude nearly indicates its 
center. Its population of about one million embraces — 

besides Cambodians proper — Chinese, Malays, Annamites, 
11 



154 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

and Siamese. The mineral, vegetable, and animal pro- 
ductions of Cambodia are varied and extensive. The 
chief articles of commerce are rice, tobacco, sugar, silk, 
cotton, and gamboge (a sweet-smelling resin) ; much fine 
timber, and several species of dye woods, are also exported. 
The mountains contain gold, lead, zinc, copper, and iron. 
The animals are the elephant, tiger, leopard, bear, deer, 
buffalo, and hog ; and the rivers are stocked with fish, 
some of them of immense size. 

We, whose good fortune it is to live in the nineteenth 
century, are accustomed to boast of the perfection and 
pre-eminence of our modern civilization, of the grandeur 
of our attainments in science, art, literature, and what 
not, as compared with those whom we call ancients ; but 
still we are compelled to admit that in many respects 
they have far excelled some of our recent endeavors, and 
notably in the fine arts of architecture and sculpture. In 
style and beauty of architecture, solidity of construction, 
and magnificent and elaborate sculpture, the great Nag- 
kon Wat Temple of Buddha has no superior, nor any 
rival, standing at the present day. The first view of the 
ruins is almost overwhelming. Neither Thebes nor Mem- 
phis has anything so enigmatical to show. It is grander 
than anything left to us by Greece or Eome. At a first 
sight one is most impressed with the magnitude, minute 
detail, high finish, and elegant proportions of this temple, 
and then to the bewildered beholder arise mysterious 
afterthoughts— Who built it ? When was it built ? and 
Where now are the descendants of those who built it ? It 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 155 

is doubtful if these questions will ever be satisfactorily 
answered. There exist no credible traditions — all is ab- 
surd fable or extravagant legend. 

We entered first upon an immense causeway, the stairs 
of which were flanked with six huge griffins, each carved 
from a single block of stone. This causeway, which leads 
directly to the main entrance of the temple, is about 
eight hundred feet in length and thirty in width, and is 
paved with stones which measure four feet in length by 
two in breadth. On each side of it are artificial lakes, 
fed by springs, and each covering about five acres of 
ground. We passed through one of the side gates, and 
crossed the square to a bamboo shed, situated at the very 
entrance of the temple. Enbosomed in the midst of a 
perfect forest of cocoa, betel, and toddy palms, and with 
no village in sight — excepting a dozen or more huts, the 
abode of priests having charge of it — the general appear- 
ance of this wonderful temple is beautiful and romantic, 
as well as grand and impressive. A just idea of it can 
hardly be conveyed in words ; it must be seen to be prop- 
erly appreciated. Still, a detailed description will assist 
the imagination somewhat in forming a proper estimate 
of the grand genius which planned and the skill and 
patience which executed such a masterpiece of archi- 
tecture. 

The outer wall of Nagkon Wat — which words signify 
a city or assemblage of temples or monasteries — about 
half a mile square, is built of sandstone, with gateways 
upon each side, which are handsomely carved with figures 



156 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

of gods and dragons, arabesques, and intricate scrolls. 
Upon the western side is the main gateway, and passing 
through this and up a causeway paved with great slabs 
of stone, for a distance of a thousand feet, you arrive at 
the central main entrance of the temple. The founda- 
tions of Nagkon Wat are as much as ten feet in height, 
and are very massively built of a species of volcanic rock. 
Including the roof, the entire edifice — wliich is raised on 
three terraces, the one about thirty feet above the other — 
is of stone, but without cement, and so closely fitting are 
the joints as even now to be scarcely discernible. The 
shape of the building is oblong, being about eight hun- 
dred feet in length and six hundred feet in width, while 
the highest central pagoda rises some two hundred and 
fifty feet or more above the ground, and four others, at 
the angles of the inner court, are no less than one hun- 
dred and fifty feet each in height ! The quarries where 
the stone, a fine-grained sandstone, was hewed, are about 
two days' travel, or thirty miles distant, and it is supposed 
the transportation of the immense bowlders could have 
been effected only by means of a water communication — 
a canal or river, or when the country was submerged at 
the end of the rainy season. In the stone pits may still 
be seen large blocks, partially separated from the parent 
rock, and bearing many marks of the quarrier's chisel. 

Passing between low railings, we ascend a platform 
composed of slabs four feet in length, and enter the tem- 
ple itself through a columned portico, the faQade of 
which is beautifully carved in low relief with ancient 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 157 

mythological subjects and arabesques equaling those of 
Nineveh. From this doorway, on both sides, runs a cor- 
ridor with a double row of columns cut, base and capital, 
from single blocks, with a double, oval, carved roof, and 
consecutive sculptures on the outer wall. This gallery of 
sculptures, which forms the exterior of the temple, con- 
sists of over half a mile of continuous pictures, cut in low 
relief, upon sandstone slabs six feet in width. The sculpt- 
ures display a high degree of art and mechanical skill. 
Their subjects are chiefly taken from Hindoo mytholo- 
gy — from the Ramayana, the " Iliad of the East," the 
Sanskrit epic poem of India, with its twenty-five thou- 
sand verses describing the exploits of the god Rama and 
the son of the King of Oudh — which the builders of the 
temple either brought with them or received from In- 
dia, or which was known by translations throughout 
Cambodia. The contests of the King of Ceylon and Ha- 
numan, the Monkey- God, are also graphically repre- 
sented. There is no keystone used in the arch of this 
corridor, but its ceiling is intricately carved. On the walls 
are sculptured the immense number of one hundred 
thousand separate figures ! Entire scenes from the Rama- 
yana are pictured ; one, I remember, occupies two hundred 
and fifty feet of the wall. Weeks might be spent in 
studying, identifying, and classifying the varied subjects 
of this wondrous gallery. The pictures are very express- 
ive and animated, the attitudes of the figures being natu- 
ral and grouped with considerable skill. You may see 
warriors riding upon elephants and in chariots, foot 



158 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

soldiers with shield and spear, boats, unshapely divinities, 
trees, monkeys, tigers, griffins, hippopotami, serpents, 
fishes, crocodiles, bullocks, tortoises, men with beards, 
and helmeted soldiers of immense physical development. 
The figures stand somewhat like those on the great Egyp- 
tian monuments, the side partly turned toward the front. 
In the case of the men, one foot and leg are always placed 
in advance of the other. I noticed, besides, five horse- 
men, armed with spear and sword, riding abreast, like 
those which may be seen upon the Assyrian tablets of the 
British Museum. 

In the processions several of the kings are preceded 
by musicians playing upon shells and long bamboo flutes. 
Some of the kings carry a sort of battle-axe, some a 
weapon which much resembles a golf- club, and others are 
represented as using the bow and arrow. In one place is 
a grotesque divinity who sits, elegantly dressed, upon a 
throne surmounted by umbrellas. This figure, of pecul- 
iar sanctity, evidently had been recently gilded, and be- 
fore it, upon a small table, were a dozen or more joss- 
sticks, kept constantly burning by the faithful. But it is 
almost useless to particularize when the subjects and style 
of execution are so diverse. The most interesting sculpt- 
ures are in two compartments, called by the natives re- 
spectively the procession and the three stages of heaven, 
earth, and hell. What gives a peculiar interest to this 
section is the fact that the artist has represented the dif- 
ferent nationalities in all their distinctive characteristic 
features, from the flat-nosed savage in the tasseled garb 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 159 

of the Pnom and the short-haired Lao, to the straight- 
nosed Eajaput, with sword and shield, and the bearded 
Moor, giving a catalogue of nationalities, like another 
column of Trajan, in the predominant conformation of 
each race. On the whole, there is such a prevalence of 
Hellenic cast in the features and profiles, as well as in the 
elegant attitude of the horsemen, that one might suppose 
that Xenocrates of old, after finishing his labors in Bom- 
bay, had made an excursion to the East. 

In some compartments are represented the delights of 
paradise, in others the punishments of the infernal regions. 
A crowd of persons are entering paradise and are received 
in palankeens ; they have with them banners, fans, para- 
sols and boxes for holding betel, without which even para- 
dise would not be perfect happiness to a Cambodian. The 
elect, seated on a magnificent dais, are surrounded by a 
great number of women with caskets and fans in their 
hands, while the men are holding flowers and have chil- 
dren on their knees. These appear to be all the joys of 
paradise. The punishments of the infernal regions, on 
the contrary, are varied and numerous; and while the 
elect, who are enjoying themselves in glory, are all fat and 
plump, the poor condemned beings are so lean that their 
bones show through their skin, and the expression of their 
faces is pitiful and full of a most comic seriousness. Some 
are being pounded in mortars, while others hold them by 
the feet and hands ; some are being sawed asunder ; others 
are led along like buffaloes with ropes through their noses. 
In other places the executioners are cutting men to pieces 



160 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

with sabers; while a crowd of poor wretches are being 
transfixed by the tusks of elephants, or on the horns of the 
rhinoceros. Fabulous animals are busy devouring some ; 
others are in irons, and have had their eyes put out. In 
the center sits the judge with his ministers, saber in hand ; 
all the guilty are dragged before them by the hair or feet. 
In the distance is visible a furnace and another crowd of 
people under punishment, being tortured in diverse ways 
— impaled, roasted on spits, tied to trees and pierced with 
arrows, suspended with heavy weights attached to their 
hands and feet, devoured by dogs or vultures, or crucified 
with nails through their bodies. 

There are figures sculptured in high relief and of 
nearly life size upon the lower parts of the walls about 
the entrance ; all are females. Their dresses are not the 
same as those worn by the Cambodians of the present day. 
The carving seems to have been done after the blocks 
were placed in position. The interior of the quadrangle, 
bounded by the long corridor just described, is filled with 
galleries or halls (formed with huge columns), which 
cross one another at right angles. In the Nagkon Wat 
as many as fifteen hundred and thirty-two solid columns 
have been counted, and among the entire ruins of Angkor 
there are reported to be the immense number of six thou- 
sand, almost all of them monoliths and artistically carved ! 
On the inner side of the corridor are blank windows, each 
of which contain seven beautifully turned little mullions. 
At the time of my visit the ceilings of the galleries were 
hung with tens of thousands of bats, while pigeons and 




An Angle of the Great Court. 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 161 

other birds had made themselves comfortable nests in out- 
of-the-way corners. 

We mount steep staircases, with steps not more than 
four inches in width, to the center of the galleries, which 
here bisect one another. There are two detached build- 
ings in this square, which, in all probability, were formerly 
used as image houses, and now contain Buddhas of recent 
date. In one of the galleries I saw two or three hun- 
dred images, made of stone, wood, brass, and clay, of all 
shapes, sizes, and ages. Joss-sticks were burning before 
the largest of them, which were daubed with red paint 
and partially gilded. We pass on across another cause- 
way, with small image houses on each hand, and up a 
steep flight of steps, fully thirty feet in height, to other 
galleries crossing each other in the center, above which 
rises the grand central pagoda, two hundred and fifty feet 
in height. The four smaller ones which I have already 
mentioned are much dilapidated and do not now display 
their full height ; the porticoes also bear evidence of the 
pressure of the heavy hand of time. Upon the four sides 
of the base of the highest spire are colossal images of 
Buddha. These figures are grandly placed, for when the 
doors of the inclosing rooms are opened, from their high 
position they overlook the surrounding country, and Cam- 
bodia is thus contemplated by her wondrous gods of 
stone. The priests of Nagkon Wat worship here at the 
present day. There is one more gallery, and then we 
come to the outer corridor and pass through a magnificent 
doorway to the rear of the temple and walk round to our 



162 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

camp, not knowing which to admire the more, the grand 
conception of the design or the mechanical skill of the 
performance. 

Before I speak of the builders and age of the ruins of 
Angkor, reference should be made to the special religious 
worship to which Nagkon Wat was dedicated. It may be 
that the aboriginal inhabitants of the Indo-Chinese pe- 
ninsula were snake worshipers, then Brahmans, and after- 
ward Buddhists, as probably were the people of northern 
India before the arrival of the Aryans ; but I must dis- 
sent from the view of Ferguson, the distinguished writer 
on architecture, that ISTagkon Wat was dedicated to Naga, 
or serpent worship — to Phaya Naght, the snake god. 
There are representations of the snake god in several of 
the compartments of the grand gallery, and the roof, cor- 
nices, and balustrades are decorated with five, seven, and 
nine headed snakes, says Ferguson. True ; but the last 
Buddha, Gaudama, was guarded in his youth, according 
to the Pali mythology, by a snake, which has ever since 
been honored and used in the ornamentation of Budd- 
hist temples throughout Farther India. The word Naga 
is the name of a fabulous dragon in all languages of the 
East Indian Archipelago. In the Jaina temples the seven- 
headed snakes are the most prominent adornments. We 
would hardly be warranted in saying Nagkon Wat was of 
Brahmanical origin because the gate and many other 
parts of it are ornamented with Hindoo deities and female 
figures, for these are found in the Buddhist temples of 
China, Tartary, Siam, and Burmah. The Mohammedans 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 163 

have adopted and adapted much of the mythology of the 
Jews. In China, Buddhism is mixed up with Confucian- 
ism and Tauism, and in Cambodia with Brahmanism and 
Jainism. 

All the evidence which I can obtain best supports the 
belief that Nagkon Wat was a Buddhist shrine. The com- 
bination of the four-faced Buddha occurs once in the great 
temple, and frequently among the ruins of Angkor. The 
female figures upon the lower parts of the wall, with their 
oblique eyes, flat noses, and thick lips, are evidently of 
Tartar origin, and from Thibet perhaps Buddhism came 
to central Indo-China. The inscriptions are in a corrupt 
form of the Buddhist sacred language. As far as we know, 
without relying upon native records, the people who have 
inhabited the country of Cambodia since about A. D. 1,000, 
at least three hundred years before the building of the tem- 
ple, were Buddhists. I am inclined to think that the archi- 
tecture of Nagkon Wat is symbolical of the Buddhist cos- 
mology. The numbers three, seven, nine, and multiples of 
nine seem to be mystic and sacred numbers among the Bud- 
dhists. There are supposed to be seven circles of rock about 
Mount Meru, the center of the Buddhist universe, as there 
are seven circles on the central tower and seven mullions in 
the windows of Nagkon Wat. The sacred mount is sup- 
ported on three platforms — so are there three terraces to 
this temple. Mount Meru rises from the ocean, and it 
seems to have been intended that Nagkon AVat, surrounded 
by its lakes and moats, should rise from a sort of inland 
sea. The temple of Boro-Buddor, in Java, has seven ter- 



164 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

races. Some of the Buddhist temples which I have seen 
in Pekin, China, have three terraces and triple roofs. In 
Nagkon Wat there are three approaches, the gateways are 
three in number, and there are three ornaments on the 
brows of the female figures or angels. In China the priest- 
hood are ordained upon a triple terrace of their monaster- 
ies. The first terrace is for Buddha, the second for the 
written law, and the third for the monastic community. 
And even supposing that the builders of Nagkon Wat 
came originally from Ceylon, where snake worship has 
always been in vogue (though the Singhalese have been 
Buddhists for at least two thousand years), I do not see 
why they may not have brought with them a species of 
Buddhism, debased or modified with Naga symbolism, as 
easily as one corrupted by Brahmanism. 

And now let me approach the interesting subjects of 
the founders of Nagkon Wat and the date of its erec- 
tion. Learned men who have visited the ruins have at- 
tempted to form opinions from studies of its construction, 
and especially its ornamentation. One would at first al- 
most despair of reaching a decision or passing judgment 
when he saw in the same temple carved images of 
Buddha, four and even thirty-two armed, and two and 
sixteen-headed divinities, the Indian Yishnu, gods with 
wings, Burmese heads, snake gods, Tartar figures, rep- 
resentatives of the Ceylon mythology, etc., though, as 
already indicated, these facts in themselves would not 
prove insurmountable obstacles to a knowledge of the 
founders. The juxtaposition in one temple of the sym- 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 165 

bols of so many different religions will not seem so 
strange when we remember that one great faith of India, 
namely, Vishnuism, appears to be a curious amalgamation 
of serpent worship, Sivaism, Jainism, and Sabianism. 
Some archaeologists have supposed Nagkon Wat to be 
fourteen hundred years old, to have been built by differ- 
ent kings, and to have been completed by one who was a 
Buddhist. The Cambodians still possess accounts of the 
introduction of Buddhism. The celebrated German Ori- 
entalist, Bastian, thinks this temple was built for the re- 
ception of the learned patriarch Buddhaghosa, who 
brought the holy books of the Trai-Pidok from Ceylon. 
And Bishop Pallegoix, a French Roman Catholic mis- 
sionary who resided many years in Siam, refers its erec- 
tion to the reign of Phra Pathum Suriving, at the time 
the sacred books of the Buddhists were brought from 
Ceylon, and Buddhism became the religion of the Cambo- 
dians. The natives themselves can throw no light upon 
this subject. I asked one of them how long the temple 
had been built. " None can tell— many hundred years 
ago," he replied. I asked if the Cambodians or some 
other race erected Nagkon Wat, and he answered frankly : 
" I do not know ; but it must either have sprung up from 
the ground or been built by giants, or, perhaps, by the 
angels." Another man said he did not believe it was 
built by angels, for he could see the effect of the tools of 
man upon it — certainly an amazing display of intellectual 
acumen for a native. But still the Cambodians of the 
present day, whose genius expresses itself only in the 



166 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

carving of their boats, have no idea that their ancestors 
constructed these temples. It seems improbable that a 
race so poor, indolent, and ignorant as the present could 
ever have designed and made these splendid causeways and 
temples. Cambodians are fond of saying : " If man built 
the Nagkon Wat, it must have been built by a race of 
more power and skill than any to be found now." 

But then, if it was some other, now extinct, race, who 
made these works, how comes it that they, with their su- 
perior energy, were swept away by the Laos and Siamese, 
timid tribes who really have no fight in them at all? 
And if we should rather credit the ancient Cambodians 
with the authorship of this temple, then the disappear- 
ance of a once splendid civilization and the relapse of a 
people into a primitiveness bordering, in some quarters, 
on the lower animals, seem to prove that man is a retro- 
gressive as well as progressive being, and that he may 
probably relapse into the simpler forms of organic life 
from which he is supposed by some to have originally 
sprung. Then, also, we would naturally ask : Was civili- 
zation, in the complex meaning we give that word, in 
keeping among the ancient Cambodians with what such 
prodigies of architecture seem to indicate? The age of 
Phidias was that of Sophocles, Socrates, and Plato; 
Michael Angelo and Raphael succeeded Dante. There 
are luminous epochs during which the human mind, de- 
veloping itself in every direction, triumphs in all, and cre- 
ates masterpieces which spring from the same inspiration. 
Have the nations of India ever known such periods of 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 16T 

special glory ? It appears little probable, and it is only 
necessary to read the Chinese traveler of the thirteenth 
century whom the Emperor Ching-Tsung sent as an am- 
bassador to Cambodia, and whose narrative the French 
Orientalist Remusat has translated, to be convinced that 
it was never reached by the ancient Cambodians. He de- 
scribes the monuments of the capital, most of which were 
covered with gilding, and he adds that, with the excep- 
tion of the temples and the palace, all the houses were 
only thatched. Their size was regulated by the rank of 
the possessor, but the richest did not venture to build one 
like that of any of the great officers of state. Despotism 
induced corruption of manners, and some customs men- 
tioned show actual barbarism. 

M. Mouhot, a French naturalist, who gave the first 
exact account of these since celebrated ruins, was strongly 
of the opinion that they were built by some of the lost 
tribes of Israel. The idea is worthy of consideration, 
for there are several thousand Christians in Burmah 
whose doctrines agree perfectly with those of the Jews, 
who, it is well known, have penetrated into the remotest 
parts of Asia. M. Mouhot, in his travels through Indo- 
China, made many efforts to discover traces of Jewish emi- 
gration to Siam or Cambodia, but met with nothing satis- 
factory excepting a record of the "Judgment of Solo- 
mon " — attributed to one of their kings, who had become 
a god after having been, according to their ideas of 
metempsychosis, an ape, an elephant, etc. The record 
was found preserved in one of the Cambodian sacred 



168 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

books. Everywhere M. Mouhot was told there were no 
Jews in the country. Still he could not but be struck 
by the Hebrew character of the faces of many of the sav- 
age Stiens ; and when looking at the figures in the bas-re- 
liefs of Angkor, he could not avoid remarking the strong 
resemblance of the faces there to those of these savages. 
Besides the similar regularity of features, they had the 
same long beards, straight waist-cloths, and also the same 
weapons and musical instruments. On the other hand, 
it would seem probable that if the temple had been built 
by one of the lost tribes of Israel, the Gothic architect- 
ure of the thirteenth century, rather than the orders 
of pagan Kome, would have been introduced. Probably 
the greater number of the figures in the bas-reliefs re- 
semble the Cochin-Chinese more than any other neigh- 
boring race. It is M. Mouhot's belief that, without 
exaggeration, the antiquity of some of the oldest parts of 
Angkor may be fixed at more than two thousand years, 
and that the age of the more recent portions approximates 
this period. But where are now the race of people who had 
the genius to plan, and the skill and patience to erect such 
magnificent structures ? No trace of them exists among 
the Cambodians of the present day, or among the sur- 
rounding nations, unless, indeed, faith is to be placed 
in the statement concerning the Stiens and another 
race — the Bannans — who inhabit the old country of 
Tsiampa. If the savage Stiens, or their ancestors, were 
the builders of Nagkon Wat, historical proof of the 
fact might be excused in view of their total ignorance 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 169 

of the art of writing. Their spoken language contains 
many words like the Cambodian. Their traditions men- 
tion the deluge. Another circumstance of some interest 
is that the foundation of the neighboring city of Angkor 
is referred by the native historians to a prince of Koma, 
or Ruma, and that the name of Eoma is familiar to 
nearly all the Cambodians, who place it at the western 
end -of the world. The presence of Eoman Doric pillars 
at Nagkon Wat might perhaps be mentioned in this 
connection. 

Whether Nagkon Wat was built by some aborigines of 
the country, the ancestors of the present hill tribes, or 
whether the ancient Cambodians came from the north- 
west, from Tartary, and were simply a branch of the Si- 
amese or Burmese race, has yet to be determined. If we 
assume that the Cambodians built the city of Angkor, it 
is still difficult to fix their origin. Their physiognomy, 
character, and religion would seem to bespeak a Thibetan 
or Tartar and Brahmanic descent ; their stone buildings 
resemble those in India; their laws savor of China and 
Mencius ; while their language is of Sanskrit and Chinese 
amalgamation. The Annamese, the neighbors of the 
Cambodians on the east, possess the manners, laws, writ- 
ten language, and customs of the Chinese, yet they are 
apparently a distinct race. When the Buddhists were 
driven out of India in the fourth century, some of them 
took refuge in Thibet, others in Ceylon. Afterward the 
former went to Cochin-China, while the latter crossed to 

Burmah and Cambodia. Those settling in Cambodia 
12 



170 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

might have reared this vast temple, retaining, it is true, 
the myths of the old superstition, but commemorating 
their adoption of a better and purer faith. And if we 
agree that wars have driven the ancient Cambodians from 
their country, where are now their descendants? Per- 
haps in the adjoining provinces of Siam and Laos, where 
are to be found to-day districts whose population is almost 
entirely composed of Cambodians who were originally led 
away captive from their native country to people the 
" desert places " of the peninsula. 

The general appearance of the buildings — the deeply 
worn stairs, the battered and decayed columns and slabs, 
the moss-covered and fallen roof, the absence of the key- 
stone in the arches — all betoken considerable age, giving 
evidence of another people and another civilization. The 
style of the architecture of the temple resembles both the 
temples of India and of Java, and this would, perhaps, seem 
to indicate a Hindoo or Malay origin. There is little re- 
semblance to the Egyptian monuments. Here all is light, 
airy, graceful ; there all is massive, severe, and grand. The 
architecture of Nagkon Wat, however, really follows no 
order recognized in the West. It is neither Egyptian, 
Assyrian, Greek, nor Saracenic, but rather, I should say, a 
combination of all. If we concur with the ethnologist 
Pickering in the belief that the Siamese were of Malay 
origin, then the que^ion might arise. Did the same race 
who built the temple of Boro-Buddor in Java also build 
that of Nagkon Wat in Cambodia ? They have, I know, 
a few resemblances. Boro-Buddor is a bell-shaped structure 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 171 

about one hundred feet in height and six hundred feet in 
diameter. It is built in seven galleries or terraces, with- 
out cement, and has four staircases which lead to its sum- 
mit. The whole is intricately and beautifully carved. 
There are between five and six hundred niches in its sides 
which contain an equal number of images of Buddha. 
The walls present a series of historical or mythological 
episodes carved with minute detail in bas-reliefs like those 
at Nagkon Wat. Boro-Buddor is known to have been 
either a Buddhist or Jaina temple. It contains no inscrip- 
tion from which its age may be determined, though the 
traditional chronology of the Javanese ascribes its date to 
A. D. 1344. But it is a matter of certainty that the Hin- 
doos were in Java during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
fifteenth centuries, and they doubtless built Boro-Buddor. 
Nagkon Wat was built, as I shall soon endeavor to show, 
about 1325, or nineteen years earlier than Boro-Buddor. 
Are we then to believe the Hindoos erected both of these 
Buddhist temples ? 

Perhaps the reader would ask me if there were no 
tablets eulogizing its founders or commemorating its 
establishment ; no inscription concerning the building 
and the builders set up in Nagkon Wat. To which I 
should reply. Yes ; inscriptions truly there are ; some can 
be deciphered and others can not. But those which have 
been read only give descriptions of offerings made by dif- 
ferent donors, with some allusions to religious ceremonies 
and mythological objects. There is a tablet of black 
marble, about five feet square, let into the wall of the east- 



172 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

em corridor, from wMch this information, and this alone, 
may be gained. The inscriptions which can not be read 
by the present race are written in ancient Cambodian, in 
characters that resemble the present alphabet, but have en- 
tirely dissimilar uses. It is said that several of the old 
kings introduced compulsory changes into the alphabet, 
besides altering the Cambodian era, and hence we see the 
almost hopeless confusion with which Orientalists have to 
contend in order to learn the chronology and history of 
this country. As further illustrative of these facts, the 
Pali — sister of the Sanskrit — is the sacred language of all 
the nations of Indo- China and Ceylon, though the mode 
of writing it in Ceylon is so unlike that practiced in Siam 
that the manuscripts of the one are not easily read by the 
priests of the other. What has been discovered of the 
Cambodian religious inscriptions would seem to indicate 
that they were derived or molded from the Pali or San- 
skrit, rather than the Malay or Chinese languages. The 
hieroglyphics of Egypt have had a Champollion, the 
cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria have had a Eawlinson, 
the picture records of Central America have had an Au- 
bin — now who will decipher for us the mysterious tablets 
of Angkor? Probably the feat will be achieved before 
long, though the difficulties are very great. It has been 
found that there are three styles of writing adopted, with 
characters fundamentally the same, which are modifica- 
tions of the Devanagiri alphabet, or the ordinary form 
in which the Sanskrit is written ; and that the Cambo- 
dians abbreviated the long Pali terms to suit their own 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 173 

monosyllabic speech, as do the Burmese to-day with their 
language, itself a variety of the ancient Pali. This they 
did on their momuments either by engraving the unpro- 
nounced part of a word or by carving the words as pro- 
nounced but not as written. 

The Chinese traveler above mentioned, who wrote an 
account of his visit to Cambodia, notes the wonderful 
appearance of the capital, describes some of the manners 
of the people, among whom he noticed white women, but 
does not state whence they came. He says the king was 
covered with gold, pearls, and diamonds. Buddhism doubt- 
less then prevailed in Cambodia, as he speaks of four-faced 
images of Buddha. Erom this writer's time until the 
latter part of the sixteenth century nothing authentic is 
heard. Cristoval de Jaque, a Portuguese, who, in 1570, 
being driven from Japan, took refuge in Cambodia, de- 
scribes the ruins of this temple, and states that even then 
the inscriptions were unintelligible to the Cambodians, 
and that Angkor was no longer a royal residence, but had 
been deserted by its inhabitants. Cristoval says the Cam- 
bodians were the most potent people between the provinces 
of Burmah and Annam. Perhaps the name " Eoma," so 
familiar to all Cambodians, was introduced by the Portu- 
guese through the tenets of the Roman Catholic faith. 
But then why should their religion have become extinct 
and still the tradition of a Prince of Roma remain ? In 
1600 the Portuguese historian Ribodeneyra refers to 
Nagkon "Wat as an ancient ruin. Then, again, there is a 
a long silence concerning these remains, which is not 



174 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

broken until the year 1860. Since this date the labors 
and studies of M. Mouhot and Dr. Bastian and Messrs. 
Kennedy and Thomson have brought the wonderful tem- 
ples to the attention of the civilized world, and almost, as 
it were, discovered them for the first time. 

And now, perhaps, I should state more definitely the 
results of my own study of the ruins. As to the race of 
people who built the city of Angkor, and the home of 
their descendants, I do not profess to have absolute knowl- 
edge. But as to when the temple of Nagkon Wat was 
built, I think I have satisfactorily determined, at least to 
within a few years. The mythology of Cambodia would 
take us back to a time coeval with the oldest monuments 
of Egypt. The more learned of the Cambodians give 
credence to neither of the traditions of 3,800 b. c. or 
of 525 B. c. as being the date of the founding of Ang- 
kor, but believe that it was founded A. d. 950, and was 
deserted in 1380, when the country was devastated by 
the Siamese. The late First King of Siam, who, it is 
known, had made considerable research into the past his- 
tory of his country, said that the accounts of Farther 
India prior to A. D. 1250 were altogether unworthy of 
credit. Angkor, as I have said, was finally destroyed by 
the Siamese in 1380. Though the Chinese traveler (of 
1295) gives a full account of all he saw there, he makes no 
mention of the great temple. Work upon ^N'agkon Wat 
was probably begun many years before 1380, because it 
seems to be the masterpiece of Cambodian art, and the 
empire was already in its decline in the middle of the 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 175 

fourteenth century. In an old Buddhist gateway in the 
Nankow Pass, about one hundred miles northeast of 
Pekin, in China, there are sculptures of the seven-headed 
snake, and also an inscription in Devanagiri characters, 
similar to those of Nagkon Wat, which bears the date 
1345. Now, since we know the Cambodians sent embas- 
sies to China, it may fairly be inferred that this Chinese 
arch was built by Cambodian workmen. Hence I would 
conclude that the great temple was built somewhere be- 
tween the dates just mentioned — say about 1325, or five 
hundred and sixty-five years ago. It would hardly be 
consistent with such meager evidence as we have to assign 
to Nagkon Wat a greater age than six hundred years, 
though possibly some of the ruins of Angkor city, and 
others in the surrounding provinces, may be a thousand or 
more years old. But this assignment of the origin of the 
gi'eat temple to so recent a date, in this instance, singu- 
larly enough, renders the problem of the present where- 
abouts of its builders all the more difficult of solution ! 

The old city of Uxmal, in Yucatan, almost rivals Ang- 
kor in extent, though it falls far short of it in the elegance 
and elaborate detail of its buildings. The climates of Yu- 
catan and Cambodia are similar in their subjection to 
tropical rains, heat, summer dryness, and the very destruct- 
ive powers of the vegetations by which they are covered. 
Stephens thought no monuments of Yucatan, retaining 
their forms, could be older than eight hundred years ; and 
that none of those which are sufficiently perfect to be 
delineated, could be older than six hundred years. In 



176 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

other words, the majority of them belong to the great 
building epoch of the world — the fourteenth century. 
It seems very probable, therefore, that the origin of the 
great temple of Uxmal — the Casa de las Monjas — is con- 
temporaneous with that of Angkor, the Nagkon Wat. 

The principal ruins of Cambodia and Cochin- China 
yet discovered lie upon a plain about fifty miles in width 
in the province of Siamrap. The greater number of them 
are temples. Their design and execution show varying 
grades of art, which indicate varying periods of erection. 
The temple of Nagkon Wat, however, displays the most 
taste, and is the most beautiful and perfect of any of the 
remains. At about three miles from Angkor are the ruins 
of a city called Patentaphrohm, and near it is a temple 
about four hundred feet square, presenting the same com- 
bination of a royal and priestly residence as do Angkor 
and Nagkon Wat. Some of these temples and palaces, 
with their columns, sculptures, and statues, are nearly as 
interesting as those at Angkor. About four miles from 
Nagkon Wat are two other ancient remains — Bakong and 
Lailan. The former is a lofty pyramid, reared in the 
style of the Mexican teocalli. At the latter are several 
images of Buddha built of bricks which are exceedingly 
hard and made in a manner not understood now by the 
people of the country: They are polished and laid upon 
each other in so neat a manner that no traces of mortar 
can be discovered. In the province of Battambong, forty 
or fifty miles southwest of Siamrap town, there are also 
ruins of temples, monasteries and palaces; and, indeed, 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 177 

the whole valley of the Makong River, to the very borders 
of China, is spread with ruins of more or less magnitude, 
beauty, and interest. 

Near the monastery of Prakeoh is an artificial lake 
built by the kings of Patentaphrohm, and surrounded 
with pleasure houses for their recreation. It must have 
been a work of immense labor, for the whole population 
of the Cambodia of to-day would scarcely be able to raise 
such a gigantic structure. The lake is of oblong shape, 
about half a mile broad and a mile long, and surrounded 
by a high embankment of solid masonry. Some of the 
blocks are as much as sixteen feet long and highly fin- 
ished. In convenient places square platforms are built 
overhanging the water, with broad flights of steps leading 
down to it, and in such places the huge masses of stone 
laid on each other are embellished upon their ends by 
delicate chiseling, bearing the figures of serpents, eagles, 
and lions. In the middle of the lake is a small island 
with the remains of a former palace upon it. 

The outer wall of Angkor city is now the only one at 
all preserved. It is about twenty feet in height and ten 
in width, built of large square blocks of coarse ferruginous 
stone, and has two gates upon the eastern side and one 
upon each of the others. A moat two hundred feet wide 
surrounds the city. The ancient city was two and a half 
miles in length and two and a quarter miles in width, sur- 
rounded by three walls, the outermost of which, the natives 
say, it would require an entire day to circumambulate. 
We entered by the south gateway — a pyramidal structure. 



178 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

perhaps fifty feet in height, rising above a pointed arch. 
On the top of this gateway was growing a poh tree, with 
a trunk as much as three feet in diameter, which sent its 
roots down through and over the huge blocks of stone 
into the rich earth. The area within the walls is now 
mostly overgrown with jungle. Excavations reveal noth- 
ing but rubbish of brick and pottery. About a mile north 
from the gate is a colossal statue of Buddha, formed of 
large stones, and evidently of modern fabrication. A 
little farther on, in the midst of the forest, are the ruins 
of an immense temple — some four hundred feet square — 
a one-story building, inclosed by high walls and sur- 
mounted by fifty stone pagodas disposed in parallel rows. 
These pagodas are about fiity feet in height, except the 
central one, which was originally at least a hundred, and 
upon their four sides are sculptured colossal faces of 
Buddha, eight feet long by four feet in width. These 
four-faced Buddhas wear a pleasant, good-natured expres- 
sion, which is heightened by the corners of the mouth 
curling upward. The ears are long and narrow, and slit 
like those of the Burmese Gautama, but a rather fancy 
tiara, or head-dress, takes the place of the short curls of 
most Buddhas. These enormous heads recall the 
Sphinxes of Egypt. One of them is nearly concealed by 
a network of the roots of a tree which has grown up from 
the side of the pagoda. To the poh trees and the ban- 
yan and the fig are due in great part the present ruinous 
state of this temple. These destroyers do their fell work 
by insinuating their roots and branches into the walls. 




Pagodas in the City of Angkor. 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 179 

When we think of the climate, the ravages of war, the 
encroachments of the jungle, and the apathy of the pres- 
ent inhabitants, who do not repair them, we wonder at 
the present state of preservation of many of the ruins. 
Still it is doubtful if these grand monuments can defy 
time much longer. Some of the blocks of stone in the 
pagodas are separated by as much as an inch, and many 
seem only to require a touch to tumble them to the 
ground. I saw a solid block of stone, six feet in length, 
which was supported in a nearly horizontal position solely 
by the roots of an immense poh tree. Some chambers of 
this temple are entirely choked up, and over and through 
all the ruins the parasitical poh has spread its roots and 
reared aloft its glossy green head, while shrubs and coarse 
grass now riot where once the praises of the great Buddha 
— the Illuminator of the World — resounded through the 
halls. Thus eternal nature effaces evanescent art; thus 
monument and hieroglyphic are concealed beneath the 
envious arabesque of leaf and flower. 

About half a mile from here we came to the palace 
gate of the inner, or third wall, upon one side of which, 
on an immense stone platform, rests the statue of the 
Leper King — of him who is supposed to have founded or 
at least completed the building of Angkor. The sides of 
the platform are faced with slabs of stone, covered with 
different featured and costumed figures, all sitting in 
cross-legged positions. On the opposite side of the gate- 
way are pictures in stone — a battle and a military proces- 
sion. What remains of the palace is a structure of py- 



180 A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 

ramidal form, terminating in a tower, the whole probably 
one hundred and fifty feet in height. It is much dilapi- 
dated. From the staircase the sandstone has fallen away, 
and the underlying coarse volcanic rock is much worn. 
In a small room near the summit were long inscriptions 
engraved upon the jambs of the doors, in the ancient un- 
decipherable Cambodian characters. 

The statue of the Leper King is carved from sand- 
stone in a sitting posture. The body, although naked 
and rather rudely cut, yet exhibits a marked contrast to 
the physical type of the present race of Cambodians. 
The features are of a much higher order ; indeed, the pro- 
file is quite Grecian in outline. The eyes are closed; a 
thin mustache, twisted up at the ends, covers the upper 
lip; the ears are long, and have the immense holes in 
their lobes peculiar to the Burmese and Siamese images 
of Buddha ; the hair is thick and displayed in curls upon 
the head, the top of which is surmounted by a small 
round crown. It is said that men having features like 
the statue of the leprous king may be occasionally met 
with at the present day in the mountains of Annam. 
There is an inscription in ancient Cambodian characters 
upon the front of the pedestal. The natives, with aston- 
ishing forethought, have placed a small grass thatch over 
this statue. They have also somewhat naturalized (if a 
foreigner) and very much travestied their royal ancestor 
(if indeed such he be) by blackening his teeth, rouging 
his lips, and gilding his forehead. Of course the precise 
history of the Leper King is not known. One tradition 



A RIVAL TO SOLOMON'S TEMPLE. 181 

affirms that Angkor was founded in fulfillment of a vow 
by a king wlio was a leper. Another tradition says that 
to an Egyptian king who, for some sacrilegious deed was 
turned into a leper, must be ascribed the authorship of 
Angkor. 

We returned to our camp, took a parting look at 
Nagkon Wat, and then started for Siamrap. Here my 
companions took leave of me and set out on their return 
to Bangkok, while I continued on alone to Saigon, cross- 
ing first Thalaysap, the great sweet- water lake of Cam- 
bodia, next descending the Mesap Eiver to Panompin, the 
capital, and then on again till finally the metropolis of 
Cochin-China was safely and happily reached. I had 
thus traversed the great Indo-Chinese peninsula — riding 
over its plains and through its forests, voyaging across its 
lakes, and paddling down its rivers — a distance of nearly 
seven hundred miles in six weeks, including many long 
and delightful delays by the way. And I had assured 
myself that a richer field for Oriental research nowhere 
exists than in Cambodia. 



III. 
QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

For some days I had been waiting at La Guayra, the 
principal seaport of Venezuela, for a steamer going to 
Trinidad, whence I hoped to be able to get to Barbadoes ; 
but as the small-pox was then raging at Aspinwall, from 
which the eastward bound steamer sailed, there was a 
strong probability of my being quarantined in Trinidad 
and elsewhere. It was necessary, however, to " take the 
chances." The steamer which I selected was the Co- 
lombie, a fine large vessel of three thousand tons belong- 
ing to the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique. We 
had about twenty first-class passengers, and a cargo of 
coffee, cacao, cotton, and sugar. As we steamed rapidly 
out of the harbor and turned to the eastward, the coast 
presented a series of rough ranges of mountains, those 
nearest the sea being red and brownish and covered with 
cacti, a second and higher range behind showing some 
good grazing land, and some still further back being 
covered with trees. Near La Guayra were large sugar- 
cane plantations and factories. But going on, the land 
appeared very sterile and uninhabited. During the night 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 183 

we passed the towns of New Barcelona and Cumana, the 
latter being famous as the spot where Humboldt first 
landed in the New World, and where he resided for a 
long time, engaged in astronomical and meteorological 
researches. Morning showed upon our left the large 
island of Margarita, belonging to Venezuela and settled 
mostly by fishermen. About noon we ran in to the road- 
stead of Carupano, on the mainland, and a little village 
of single-story houses lining the shore of a small semi- 
circular bay. It was backed by hills, some of which were 
cultivated and others covered with scrubby vegetation and 
trees. This place is the outlet of a very rich coffee and 
cacao region, and hence all the great lines of steamers 
make it a point of call. We loaded much coffee, and then 
went on to the British island of Trinidad, whose capital, 
the Port-of-Spain, has a very good circular roadstead. 
The town, however, lies upon such level ground and is 
so thickly set with trees that but little of it appears from 
the steamer's deck. Beyond are beautiful green hills, 
many of them planted with sugar-cane. As I feared, the 
steamer was quarantined, and no passengers were allowed 
to land. So I went on to Fort de France, in the island of 
Martinique, the next port, hoping to be allowed to land 
there, and so get to Barbadoes. At Port-of-Spain we 
loaded a great deal of coffee. On leaving, our course was 
nearly due north. We sighted the British island of 
Grenada and also the archipelago of small islands extend- 
ing from Grenada to St. Vincent and called the Grena- 
dines. 



184 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

At eight o'clock the following morning we were in 
plain sight of Martinique, styled the most beautiful of the 
Lesser Antilles. It is about fifty miles in length and 
fifteen miles at its greatest breadth. It has a population 
of about one hundred and fifty thousand, of whom only 
twenty thousand are whites. The shape and surface of the 
island are very irregular, and the coast is broken up into 
numerous bays, which are difficult of entry. The for- 
mation is decidedly volcanic, and the conical hills, one of 
which, Mont Pelee, reaches a height of forty-five hundred 
feet, are all extinct volcanoes. The surface is greatly di- 
versified with fertile valleys, watered by smaU rivers. The 
higher parts of the hills are thickly timbered, while the 
undulating plains are covered with sugar-cane or great 
velvety meadows. The varieties of yellow and green color 
seen under a bright morning sun were very pretty. The 
principal productions of the island are sugar, coffee, indi- 
go, maize, and cocoa. The commerce is chiefly with 
France. There are two towns, Fort de France and St. 
Pierre, of which the former, being the seat of government, 
is considered the capital, although St. Pierre far exceeds 
it in size and commercial importance. Fort de France is 
a neat little town situated in a small valley opening di- 
rectly upon the ocean, or rather upon the northern side of 
a very large bay which here reaches into the island from 
the ocean. The roadstead is circular, and is so surrounded 
by land as to be very safe for shipping. Just before the 
town at one side is an enormous fort, built in two terraces 
with great stone walls and towers. The houses of Fort de 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 185 

France are two stories in height, and the foliage about 
them, consisting of cocoanut trees and acacias and others 
in full flower, makes a very picturesque scene. Little 
steamers ply from here to St. Pierre and to other points 
where either settlements or produce would warrant 
transport service. We were quarantined at Fort de 
France as well as at Port-of- Spain. Such passengers 
as left the steamer would have to remain in quarantine 
for four days, and should any of them die during that 
time the detention of the survivors in the lazaretto 
would be greatly extended. So I decided to go on to 
the town of Basse Terre in the island of Guadeloupe, 
there to endeavor to catch the Eoyal Mail steamer to 
Barbadoes. We were busy during the remainder of the 
day taking coal from lighters, which were manned by 
negroes of large stature and splendid physical develop- 
ment. The negroes of these French islands are not only 
fine looking, but remarkably intelligent. Many small 
boats also came off to us from the shore, whose occupants 
had for sale choice shells and corals, collections of pre- 
pared fishes, and curious radiates which were dried and 
varnished. Some of the fish were covered with long 
spines like a porcupine, and many others were equally odd 
to northern eyes. The women had besides for sale vari- 
ous kinds of potted fruits, and pin-cushions fringed with 
pretty bead trimmings. 

The next afternoon we started for St. Pierre. The 
scenery continued interesting — hills, plantations, woods, 

valleys, rocky coasts, and little houses half concealed by 
13 



186 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

tlie rich foliage. It was quite dark when we reached St. 
Pierre, though with the assistance of a small moon, my 
binoculars, and the lights of the city, I could make out 
something of its position and general appearance. It ex- 
tends along the coast and up a broad and very gently 
sloping valley, and is backed by high and prettily diversi- 
fied hills. AVe were quarantined and not allowed to land, 
for which, however, there would not have been time, as 
we remained but about an hour, and then started for 
Basse Terre, on the island of Guadeloupe, passing the 
British island of Dominica, of which more anon. We 
found Basse Terre to be a small town built along the 
coast and sloping back to the base of some high and steep 
hills. We remained less than an hour— no passengers 
being allowed to land — and then, turning about and 
rounding the southern end of the island, headed north 
for Point a Pitre. Guadeloupe consists properly of two 
islands separated by a narrow channel which is only five 
miles in length but is navigable for small vessels. The 
western island, or Basse Terre (Guadeloupe proper), is 
thirty-five miles long and eighteen miles wide ; the east- 
ern is a little smaller. The larger island is traversed by a 
mountain range, the highest point of which is a volcano, 
called La Souffriere, whose summit is five thousand feet 
above the level of the sea. Like Martinique, Guadeloupe 
is of volcanic origin ; it is, like the other, subject to de- 
structive earthquakes and hurricanes. The exports are 
the same, with the addition of rum, tobacco, and dye- 
woods from Guadeloupe. The eastern part of Guade- 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 187 

loupe proper presents some of the most beautiful scenery 
in the Antilles. From the summit of La Souffriere, as 
we passed, a thin column of smoke curled upward. The 
surface slopes gently back from the ocean to the central 
range of hills, and is covered mostly with sugar-cane. 
Several streams descend from springs in the hills. A few 
villages appear. Grande Terre seems to be low-lying, 
flat, and swampy. The town of Point a Pitre stands on 
this island, at the mouth of the channel or river above 
spoken of, and was formerly the capital, but is now an 
uninteresting place, though with a fine harbor. The next 
stojjping-place of my steamer being Santander, in Spain, 
it became imperative that I should disembark at Point a 
Pitre, notwithstanding an unavoidable quarantine, which 
I soon learned would be eight days in length. There were 
seven first-class and thirty third-class passengers who 
were to be quarantined with me ; so, if misery loves com- 
pany, I was well provided for. The seven — among whom 
were two ladies — were all of different nationalities; the 
thirty, men and women, were either French or English 
negroes. In a few hours we were transferred to a small 
sloop, together with our baggage and some provisions. 
The steamer left us, for Europe, and we hoisted sail for 
the quarantine station, situated upon one of the little 
group called Les Saintes, which lie south of Guadeloupe 
and about thirty miles from Point a Pitre. Several other 
neighboring islands besides Les Saintes are included 
within the jurisdiction of Guadeloupe. Our sloop was a 
miserable, dirty, old, worn-out craft, and first and third 



188 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

class passengers were huddled together in the most social- 
istic manner. We sailed along the beautiful eastern shore 
of Guadeloupe, slowly at first, as we had a head wind ; 
and then the wind gave out altogether, and we were be- 
calmed for several hours. The negro passengers amused 
themselves by continual brawls and fights among them- 
selves, and the crew by drinking rum, which soon made 
most of them drunk. A breeze sprang up in the evening, 
and we finally reached our destination and dropped an- 
chor near shore. It was midnight and too late to sum- 
mon the medical inspector from the neighboring town. 
"Without his ofiicial survey and examination we could not 
land, so we had to sit in the boat — there was not room to 
lie down — until morning. 

Not until eight o'clock the next day did the doctor 
present himself and give us the necessary permission to 
land. At a little stone pier the manager of the quarantine 
station checked off our names, and learned which of the 
three classes of accommodation we wished, the charges 
being for the first class seven francs per day, three francs 
for the second, and one franc for the third. We were 
allowed to take only our satchels with us. Many events 
of the next few days were of a very farcical character. 
The first absurdity presented to us was a man who, with 
a big brush dipped in a large basin of carbolic acid, 
sprinkled a few drops upon the back of each of us. The 
" Lazarat des Saintes," as the quarantine station of Guade- 
loupe is officially styled, is very prettily situated upon a 
narrow neck of land over which strong ocean trade winds 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 189 

continually sweep. The buildings are placed at the bot- 
tom and upon the side of a circular hill surmounted by 
an old battery, TOich is about five hundred feet above 
sea-level. This hill terminates the island in this direc- 
tion, and from its top splendid views may be had of 
Guadeloupe to the north, Marie Galante to the east, Do- 
minica to the south, and the several islands of Les Saintes 
around and below. The islands of Les Saintes, like all 
the rest, are of volcanic formation, hilly, rocky, covered 
with coarse grass and scrubby trees. They produce coffee 
and cotton by cultivation ; some sugar-cane is also grown. 
All the islands are sparsely inhabited. The people de- 
pend largely upon sheep and fish for their sustenance. 
They are mostly negroes and Creoles, who speak a very 
bad sort of Erench. The water where our sloop anchored 
was very deep and clear and full of enormous fish, which 
we could plainly see at a depth of fifty feet. Along the 
shore are beds of beautiful corals and many varieties of 
shells. There are accommodations in the quarantine for 
about five hundred people. The buildings are long, nar- 
row, single story, built of wood, with shingled sides and 
roof. Those of the first class have a broad hall extend- 
ing throughout their entire length, on each side of which 
are small rooms whose partitions reach only to the eaves. 
At one end is a large dining and sitting room. The 
buildings of the other classes are all open, like the wards 
of a hospital. Our rooms were exceedingly plain, being 
furnished with little more than small iron bedsteads. 
The table was fairly good, and we readily learned to what 



190 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

we were entitled from a printed set of rules which was 
posted in the dining-room. We were furnished with just 
such things, at just such meals, and m just such quan- 
tities — grammes and centigrammes, litres and centilitres.' 
The printed rules not only specify exactly the kind and 
amount of our food, but also the number of mattresses, 
pillows, sheets, towels, and napkins we are to be allowed. 
They mention the rather extraordinary fact that bed 
linen and towels are to be washed only every fifteen days, 
while the table linen and napkins are washed as frequently 
as every eight days. A doctor arrived from Basse Terre 
the morning following our advent, and, remained with 
us during the continuance of our quarantine. He had a 
little detached house all to himself, and made use of a 
small pharmacy established in a room of our dormitory. 
Soon after the arrival of the doctor our trunks were 
brought on shore and placed in a large stone building 
near the wharf. Here they were opened, and all soiled 
linen was required to be removed and hung upon lines. 
Small basins of sulphur were distributed about, and, being 
ignited, the building was closed and our effects thus fumi- 
gated for forty-eight hours. The door was then opened, 
the soiled linen removed and dipped into boiling salt 
water, and all the pillows used by the passengers were 
piled in a heap upon the shore and burned by the doctor. 
It was then permitted us to have our trunks sent to our 
rooms. Of course, all this was very inconsistent and of 
very little value as a prophylactic measure, for most of 
us had soiled linen in our satchels, at our rooms, and 



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QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 191 

nothing was done about fumigating this. The same day 
that this red-tape tomfoolery was consummated we were 
all required to pay in advance for the proposed term of 
our detention in quarantine. Anything not furnished 
our table which we desired — such as liquors, preserves, 
or pickles — we had to obtain in the neighboring town, 
through means of our daily market boat. For such ad- 
ditions we had, of course, to pay from our own pockets. 
We found it quite comfortable in quarantine while re- 
maining in the breeze. We were allowed to take a swim 
in the bay every morning. Occasionally we would go 
out fishing, and this, with walks, reading, writing, and 
card-playing, caused our time to pass very quickly. 

On the morning of the ninth day we leave the quaran- 
tine of Les Saintes for Basse Terre, a sail of a couple 
of hours. We land at a pier and then walk across a small 
plaza — filled with tamarind trees and containing an iron 
fountain in its center — to the custom-house. Opposite 
this, in the single hotel of the place, we obtain fair ac- 
commodation. The town is laid out at right angles, and 
those streets which lead up toward the hills are paved with 
square stone blocks, as are also the sidewalks, the other 
streets being macadamized. There is running water in 
most of the streets, and the town is besides well supplied 
with water from a small river which courses through it. 
At the corners of the streets kerosene lamps are sus- 
pended. The principal business street contains small 
retail stores of every kind. Back upon the hills are the 
dwellings of the richer merchants, imbedded in lovely 



192 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

flower gardens. The market of Basse Terre is held in an 
open square filled with beautiful acacias. Here you will 
be sure to discover a fine variety of fruits and plenty of 
fish ; other departments of the vegetable kingdom are less 
worthily represented. The cathedral is a plain stone 
structure, with only a few plaster statues outwardly, but 
within it is very pretty. The ceilings contain portraits 
of the evangelists, the walls plaster casts of the " stations 
of Christ." There are several large paintings and a fine 
organ. About the only other show sight of Basse Terre 
is its Jardin des Plantes, which is small, but contains a 
splendid collection of rare tropical plants tastefully ar- 
ranged with lawns, ponds, fountains, walks, summer- 
houses, etc. An interesting drive of seven miles takes the 
stranger directly back into the island to the military bar- 
racks and a small village situated upon the flanks of the 
volcano of La Souffriere. A handsome large hospital 
commands superb views of ocean, town, and island. Good 
macadamized roads are found all over Guadeloupe. A 
diligence runs each day to Point a Pitre, about forty-five 
miles distant, and a little steamer also connects these 
places three times in every week. You rarely see a white 
face in Guadeloupe save that of one of the garrison, but 
there is every shade from this to the blackest of coal. 
The common people are simply and thinly clad, as is 
necessary in so torrid a spot. The men wear linen shirt 
and trousers and go barefooted ; the women gay-colored 
calico dresses, the waists of which come up just under the 
arms. No corsets or stockings are worn. Upon their 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 193 

heads they wear yellow silk bandannas, and a red kerchief 
around the neck. The upper classes imitate French fash- 
ions for the most part. Very many of the ladies dress in 
black, which becomes them amazingly. But it is always 
amusing to see an otherwise completely and properly 
dressed lady with bare feet thrust into French high- 
heeled patent-leather shoes or slippers. 

One day I made an excursion in the little iron steamer 
to Point a Pitre. The route is up the west coast, and 
around the northern, to the little salt river that divides 
the two islands which together constitute Guadeloupe. 
We left at eight in the morning and arrived at three in 
the afternoon, making half a dozen stops at little villages 
on the way. We kept within a short distance of the 
shore, and hence enjoyed splendid views all day long. 
The island presented the same general characteristics as 
those already described — beautiful hills covered with 
trees or coffee and fertile valleys filled with sugar-cane or 
maize. Here and there might be seen a farm-house and 
sugar-factory. Numbers of the graceful cabbage-palm 
inland, and cocoanut-palms and bananas nearer the shore, 
lent a foreign and tropical aspect to the scene. We had 
already passed upon the left the British island of Mont- 
serrat, and as we turned in toward Grande Terre, we could 
just discern the dim outline of another English island to 
the north — Antigua. The salt-water channel is never 
more than fifty feet wide, and is lined with mangroves. 
We found a number of ships lying off Point a Pitre, as 
upon a former visit, and upon landing discovered a town 



194 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

of similar character to Basse Terre. The streets, however, 
are generally wider, and the houses two and three stories 
in height. The cathedral is a fine large building with 
stained-glass windows, a marble altar, and many paint- 
ings. I returned the next day by the same steamer to 
Basse Terre. Breakfast was served on board and was 
very bad, notwithstanding five francs were charged for 
it. As regards the steamer, it was, perhaps, with a single 
exception — an Egyptian one in the Mediterranean — the 
most filthy vessel it was ever my misfortune to encounter. 
I remained about a week in Basse Terre, trying to get a 
steamer to take me on my way, but, owing to a report of 
yellow fever at Point a Pitre, the whole island of Guade- 
loupe was declared in quarantine. Although several 
steamers called — among them the large French steamer 
Amerique, of five thousand tons burden, which used to 
ply between New York and Havre — they did not " com- 
municate " with the shore, and passengers were not re- 
ceived. Finally, seeing no chance of leaving Basse Terre 
for some weeks, a few of us who had been at Les Saintes 
together decided to sail in a small boat to the next large 
island to the south, Dominica, a British island with 
which we heard the Eoyal Mail steamers communicated, 
and from which we might get to Barbadoes. 

We left at four o'clock one morning, our destination 
being a small port on the northern end of Dominica, 
where we proposed to transship to a boat of that island, 
and go on to Roseau, its capital. Roseau is, by this 
course, about fifty miles from Basse Terre. Our boat was 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 195 

exceedingly small for the number of our party and tlie 
weight of our baggage. It was quite open, about fifteen 
feet in length and four feet in width, and was sloop- 
rigged. The passengers were four, the crew three. No 
other boat was to be had in Basse Terre, and so we felt 
bound to make a dash for liberty at almost any risk. It 
was rather a dangerous journey, as we were loaded to 
within a few inches of the gunwale, and the sea — the 
open ocean — between the islands of Guadeloupe and 
Dominica is generally rough. It would, moreover, owing 
to the amount of our baggage have been extremely diffi- 
cult to bale our boat should very heavy rains visit us or 
violent squalls force water aboard. Fortunately, we had 
no rain and no strong winds. "We were on the contrary 
gently wafted by light breezes or becalmed so that we had 
to row. The sun beat upon us with such terrific force 
that we became almost sick. Fortunately, we had taken 
a good supply of provisions and drinking water. We 
sailed and rowed and drifted for eighteen hours, crowded 
in the boat so that we could not change our positions an 
atom. We reached our destination at ten in the evening 
and slept on the floor of a native's hut until four the next 
morning, when we engaged a large four-oared boat and 
men to row us to a neighboring village, where we hoped 
to get from the harbor-master a permit which we could 
take to Eoseau with us. Imagine our surprise and dis- 
gust when this official said he could do nothing for us, 
but would be compelled to put us in quarantine for at 
least a couple of days, while he forwarded our explana- 



196 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

tion and petition to the President of Dominica, at 
Eoseau ! 

The town of Prince Eupert where we had called — we 
were not allowed to go on shore — is most picturesquely 
situated upon level ground, at the head of a deep circular 
bay, with rows of beautiful cocoanut-palms along the 
shore and beautiful hills as a background. The quaran- 
tine station is situated on the side of a tree-covered hill, 
on the north headland of the bay. Here there is an old 
and very large stone fortress, at present ruined and dis- 
mantled and overgrown with trees and shrubs. It ap- 
pears that it was the intention of the Government first to 
make Prince Eupert the capital, but the unhealthfulness 
of the position being discovered, the idea was abandoned. 
The enormously thick stone walls of the fort are, how- 
ever, still standing, as well as part of those of the bar- 
racks, mess-halls, kitchens, hospital, and lock-up. The 
various outlying batteries and the fortress and its equip- 
ment, erected about a century ago, are said to have cost 
one million dollars. A narrow stone causeway leads from 
the landing up the hill to the fortress. Passing through 
a great guava orchard, we entered the massive gateway, 
and were surprised and shocked to find that the only 
quarantine accommodation for all classes consisted of an 
old stone kitchen, about fifteen feet by nine, with a mis- 
erable leaky roof and broken floor, full of venomous 
insects and disgusting vermin, and filthy beyond ex- 
pression. It contained not a single article of furniture 
and no toilet conveniences of any character. These 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 197 

things, as well as the table crockery, we were obliged to 
hire from the harbor-master. This official also agreed to 
furnish us with meals, which were dispatched from 
Prince Eupert, across the bay, a distance of a couple of 
miles, and thus arrived in a lukewarm or cold condition. 
For all these things we were expected, of course, to pay 
liberally. Our first act, upon making the above interest- 
ing discoveries, was to send a petition to the President of 
Dominica, begging him to have our quarantine made very 
brief, or omitted altogether, in view of the frightful con- 
dition of our quarters, which were so unsanitary, and in 
such a hot and airless situation, that we feared we could 
not remain without serious, if not fatal illness. We inti- 
mated, in brief, that the old kitchen was not fit for 
human habitation, and in this view were supported by 
both the health officer and the officer in charge of the 
quarantine. The latter informed us that a few years ago 
suitable accommodation existed in the neighboring bar- 
racks, but that a hurricane removed its roof, and another 
had never been added. During the afternoon a smart 
shower came up, and we found that our roof leaked in 
sixteen places. We had to pile all our baggage in one 
corner, and move our chairs as the descending douches 
consecutively occurred. At night we were so pestered 
with vermin — mosquitoes, fleas, ants, spiders, mice — that 
sleep was quite impossible. Examining our quarters 
more carefully early in the morning, we readily enumer- 
ated twenty distinct species of venomous insects, and of 
these there were many varieties. 



198 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

On the third day the health officer arrived with an 
order from the Board of Health at Roseau commuting 
our quarantine from fifteen days, the advertised period, to 
three. So the following morning, early, we left for Ro- 
seau in the same four-oared boat that had brought us 
to the quarantine station. We kept near the shore in 
smooth water. The island consisted of lofty and irregu- 
lar wooded hills, beautiful valleys with steep sides, and a 
little level land occasionally near the shore. Many very 
small rivers entered the sea ; indeed, there are said to be 
nearly four hundred of these little streams in Dominica. 
Little cultivation of the land was visible, owing to its 
very rough and broken character. We passed a number 
of villages like those in Central Africa, their huts oblong 
in shape, with steep grass-thatched roofs, and single open- 
ing — the door. These villages were generally situated at 
the mouth of some stream, and were half-concealed by 
the ever-picturesque cocoanut-palms. The surf thun- 
dered upon the beach in very majestic style, rolling the 
pebbles up and down with sonorous boomings. After six 
hours of sailing and rowing, we reached Roseau, a little 
town at the opening of a beautiful valley sloping up from 
the sea, on which it presents but a narrow front. Away 
back, upon a high cliff with a perpendicular face, stands 
an old fort, now utilized as a hospital. Three or four 
schooners were anchored abreast of the town as we disem- 
barked at the solitary pier and then walked a short dis- 
tance up one of the roughly paved, surface-drained, grass- 
grown streets to the sole hotel. This we were delighted 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 199 

to find clean and comfortable, and offering a good table. 
The little houses of Koseau are generally of wood, with 
shingle roofs, and but one story in height. They are not 
generally painted, either within or without. Thus exteri- 
orly the town presents a very somber grayish appear- 
ance. The cathedral is of cut gray stone, is low but 
large, and contains a pulpit of dark polished wood, which 
was presented by the late Emperor Napoleon III. This 
unfortunate monarch had, I believe, some distant rela- 
tives living here. 

One day a party from our hotel made an excursion up 
the valley to visit a lime plantation and a beautiful 
waterfall in the Roseau River, about ten miles distant 
from the capital. We were all mounted upon tough 
ponies, and carried rubber coats as a protection from the 
heavy and frequently occurring showers. The road for 
the first part of the way was very good, wide enough and 
level enough for a carriage. We passed the river on a 
neat iron-girder bridge, and soon entered a part of the 
valley like a gorge, oi caflon, with steep and lofty walls. 
The scenery became most wild and picturesque. The 
density of the vegetation was especially remarkable ; every 
square inch of surface seemed packed with verdure. 
Even the rocky precipices were covered with trees, scrub, 
and. vines. Prominent features were the cocoanut-palms, 
bananas, bamboos, breadfruit, almond trees, papaya, man- 
goes, tree ferns, and plantations of sugar-cane, limes, 
and cacao. Dominica possesses in a remarkable degree 
the two requisites for rank vegetation — intense heat 



200 QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 

and frequent showers. The road gradually ascended to 
a height of perhaps fifteen hundred feet, when we 
reached the lime plantation to which we were bound. 
There were some two hundred acres under cultivation. 
The trees were so heavily covered with the beautiful 
golden fruit that nearly all of them had to have their 
limbs supported by pieces of bamboo. The limes were 
being crushed in a small mill worked by a yoke of oxen. 
The juice ran into large hogsheads from which it was 
taken to have oil distilled from it. Afterward a process 
of boiling condensed it to one sixth of its original quan- 
tity, when it was bottled and shipped as the concentrated 
oil of commerce. 'Near by, the owner of the planta- 
tion had a very comfortable little house, surrounded by 
beautiful trees, lawns, and flowers. After inspecting the 
premises and breakfasting, we rode on up the valley, the 
trail becoming very steep and frequently zigzagging. 
Superb views were obtained of the valley below us, of lat- 
eral gorges, and of mountain peaks upon every hand. "We 
next entered a dense forest, and continued in it until we 
reached the neighborhood of the fall, where we had to 
alight and proceed on foot. The fall, though narrow, 
contains considerable water, and makes a nearly perpen- 
dicular leap of two hundred feet. We returned by the 
same road to the farm-house where we had breakfasted, 
and in the cool of the late afternoon remounted our 
ponies and went back to town after a most agreeable ex- 
cursion, notwithstanding that the trip from the falls to 
the farm-house was made through a tremendous rain- 



QUARANTINED IN THE ANTILLES. 201 

storm such as can be experienced only in the tropics. 
Dominica was formerly devoted to the raising of sugar- 
cane, but now it can not compete with some of the other 
islands ; and, besides, the sugar markets of the world are 
overstocked, so that ground formerly covered with cane is 
now occupied by limes. These are hardy trees, and re- 
quire little or no cultivation, while the cane requires a 
great deal. 

Dominica produces comparatively little of anything, 
it has so small a proportion of level ground ; but, if be- 
hind in the matter of cultivation, it is certainly well to 
the front as regards picturesqueness. Martinique has, as 
I have already said, long been styled the most beautiful 
of the Lesser Antilles, but Dominica will well contest with 
her the palm. 

A few days afterward we left Koseau in one of the 
Eoyal Mail steamships for Barbadoes. This steamer had 
called at Basse Terre, but had not communicated with 
the shore; so, after all, it was most fortunate that we 
went from Guadeloupe to Dominica. We called at St. 
Pierre, in Martinique, and then at Port Castries, in the 
British island of St. Lucia, and the next stop was at Bar- 
badoes— that Barbadoes for which I had set out from La 
Guayra just five weeks before ! 



14 



IV. 

AN OEIENTAL MONSTER. 

Some ten years ago, the startling and atrocious news 
came from Burmah that young King Theebau, seeking to 
appease the wrath of the evil spirits in which he was said 
to believe, had buried alive seven hundred men, women, 
and children. The report was contradicted, and may 
have been, in great part, untrue ; but, nevertheless, the 
" institutions " which afflicted Burmah gave color to 
almost any amount of credulity vouchsafed by the reader 
of the daily journals. 

For instance, the Government of Burmah was a pure 
despotism. It therefore protected the chief ruler in any 
crime, however horrible or nefarious, he may have chosen 
to perpetrate, and enabled him, with impunity, to hold 
the lives and fortunes of his subjects in the hollow of his 
hand. He was the father of the state; the mandarins 
and the magistrates bore a similar relation to the prov- 
inces and departments over which they respectively pre- 
sided. The laws were created in accordance with the 
grossest instincts of savagery, and were the full expres- 
sion of ferocious principles, of which certain laws in our 



AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 203 

own country may be regarded as faint reverberations. 
Bribery thrived in the rankest luxuriance. What was 
there named justice was founded upon the celebrated 
Institutes of Menu ; but the most unfortunate thing that 
could happen to a citizen was to fall into its clutches, 
unless he was rich enough to buy himself out. If a liti- 
gant was wealthy, the suit was apt to be a long and costly 
one, and a decision was frequently given in favor of him 
who paid the highest. A favorite mode of trial was that 
by ordeal. In accordance with this principle of equity, 
the party that could remain the longer beneath the sur- 
face of the water, or that showed the more endurance in 
immersing his finger in boiling water or melted lead, was 
in the right, and came forth victor. Punishments were 
extremely cruel. For murder and treason, decapitation, 
drowning, and burning alive were most in vogue. For 
offenses less heinous, maiming, branding, imprisonment, 
slavery, the stocks, and laboring in chains were held in 
reserve. Cruel floggings were all but universal, and 
were inflicted even upon the highest officers of the state. 
There, as in China, the bamboo was the invariable instru- 
ment ; and the fear of the cane, which, in these regions, 
is the beginning of wisdom, may be said to have influ- 
enced all eastern Asia. The system of forfeits and fines 
was more rigorous than that prescribed by Mosaic law. 
If a man stole a horse, he must surrender two ; if an ox, 
he must surrender fifteen ; a buffalo, thirty ; a pig, fifty ; 
a young fowl, one hundred; a man, ten — or four if he 
only concealed him. These requirements, indeed, were 



204: AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 

the best part of Burmese law. The fact which I wish to 
emphasize is that, in the main, the laws were cruel and 
justice meant injustice. 

The kingdom of which I am speaking is a very- 
secluded portion of Farther India, and is now, as is well 
known, under an English protectorate. The locality is 
between Hindoostan and the Bay of Bengal on the west, 
and Siam on the east. Mandalay, the capital, is on the 
great Irrawaddy Eiver, about seven hundred miles from 
its mouth. The city is nearly a mile square, and is sur- 
rounded by a high brick wall. Macadamized avenues, 
one hundred feet wide, intersect each other at right 
angles. The grass-roofed houses, mostly built of bamboo, 
are raised a few feet from the ground on posts ; in some 
of the principal streets, however, the structures are of 
wood, and are two stories in height. Lying upon a plain, 
the general aspect would be very monotonous but for 
the pagodas, monasteries, and image-houses which sprout 
up in every direction and lend diversity of contour and 
color. The population may be placed at one hundred 
thousand. The trade is mainly controlled by Chinese 
merchants. At the time of my visit, a number of years 
ago, less than a score of European residents were there. 
These were mostly officials of the British Government, 
which, since the previous war, had always maintained a 
political agent at the capital. Upon the advent of the 
present King, that officer became convinced that wisdom 
demanded his withdrawal. The entire population of 
Burmah is not more than thirty- five hundred thousand ; 



AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 205 

the whole extent of territory is six hundred miles in 
length and four hundred in width. 

The King, who once alone decided upon peace or war, 
and who dispensed at pleasure imprisonment, torture, and 
death, resides in a palace, the surrounding walls of which 
are double, the inner walls inclosing seventy-five acres 
of ground. Within this space are found the royal pago- 
das, temples, barracks, mint, law courts, monasteries, mil- 
itary store-houses, and, finally, the magnificent Hall of 
Audience, built of dark wood intricately carved and gayly 
ornamented. Here is the abode of the white elephant ; 
here are the library and the various palaces of the King 
and royal family ; and it is needless to say that the fam- 
ilies of the pre-eminently married potentates of Asia ne- 
cessitate a perfect labyrinth of imperial residences. The 
style of architecture in all these fabrics is highly ornate. 
The roofs are lofty and pyramidal, and the edifices are 
always built upon piles raised five or six feet from the 
ground. The King, dwelling here in the midst of his 
wives and favorites, had the satisfaction of knowing that 
the entire domain of Burmah was owned by the Crown. 
His revenue was five million dollars ; but this sum prov- 
ing too trifling for his orgies, he created lotteries, to which 
his subjects were forced to subscribe. This method of 
raising money was quite as effective as that of the former 
King, which was to buy goods at a very cheap rate, and 
to serve them out at a very dear one as pay to his troops 
and followers. These grossly badgered victims were 
afterward forced to sell the goods at an enormous sacrifice. 



206 AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 

It was in this barbarously magnificent residence that 
King Theebau had the hourly opportunity of snuffing up 
that incense of flattery of which most monarchs, whether 
civilized or uncivilized, can scarcely have too much. He 
was not only " Lord of Life and Death," but enjoyed a 
score of other titles. Among these were : Mighty Lord ; 
Glorious Sovereign of Land and Sea ; Possessor of Mines 
of Eubies, Amber, Gold, Silver, and all Kinds of Metals ; 
the Lord under whose Command were Innumerable Sol- 
diers, Captains, and Generals ; the Lord who was King 
of many Countries and Provinces, and Emperor over 
many Eulers and Princes who waited round the Throne 
with the Badges of his Authority; the Lord who was 
adorned with the Greatest Power, Wisdom, Knowledge, 
Prudence, and Forethought ; the Lord who was rich in 
the Possession of Elephants and Horses, and, in par- 
ticular, was the Lord of Many White Elephants ; the Lord 
who was the Greatest of Kings, the Most Just, and the 
Most Religious, the Master of Life and Death ; Sovereign 
of all the Umbrella-bearing Chiefs ; the Sun-descended 
Monarch. In announcing these appellations categori- 
cally, the royal chamberlain needed a cultivated memory ; 
but probably his recollection of past bamboos and his 
dread of future ones, produced as fine an effect as the best 
system of ^nemoria technica. 

When I first saw the gentleman who enjoyed these 
titles he was occupying a position which, though neither 
comfortable nor dignified, was in accordance with the 
strictest etiquette of the Burmese court. I was at that 



AN ORIENTAL MONSTER 207 

time honored with an audience with his father — an event 
which I have described at some length in The Land of 
the White Elephant. The crown-prince was a tall, slight 
young man, with fine piercing eyes and an unusually 
intelligent expression. The simplicity of his attire was 
slightly contradicted by the presence of two enormous 
diamond ear-rings. This simplicity he retained after 
ascending the throne, when the ornaments which princi- 
pally distinguished his appearance from that of an or- 
dinary Burmese citizen were a spray of diamonds worn 
in his hair, and worth the value of a province, and a 
ring whose solitary sapphire was doubtless the richest 
in the world. His extreme handsomeness rendered his 
attitude on the above-mentioned occasion the more 
noticeable. He was lying at full length, face downward, 
before the throne, his nose literally touching the floor. 
Upon the royal dais sat his august father," King Moung- 
lon, in shirtless majesty. Mounglon died in 1878, and 
the Executive Council, consisting of the four principal 
ministers of state, immediately elected Theebau to the 
throne. Absolute authority proved more than the un- 
trained mind of the young man could bear. Instead of 
seeking advice from his father's old and trusted council- 
ors, he surrounded himself with young men and min- 
ions of his own age, and began that career of debauchery 
in which he proved so signal a success. He emulated 
those ancient heroes of infamy who are known to history 
as the rulers of Kome, and probably no crime accom- 
plished by them has been left unachieved by him. In 



208 AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 

this manner lie became known to the world. He dis- 
posed of claimants to the throne by immediately putting 
to death all who in the remotest degree could feel an 
interest in that direction. The doings of Herod, Nero, 
and the King of Dahomey pale their ineffectual fires and 
hide their diminished heads compared with those of this 
Eastern majesty. Of the hundred and ten children left 
by his royal father, all but three were put to the slaugh- 
ter. One could not call the King of Burmah " brother " 
without feeling that the executioner was on his track. 
Some of these princes and princesses were flogged to 
death, others were buried alive, many were drawn and 
quartered, and not a few were blown to atoms with gun- 
powder. 

Several ancestors of Theebau have, I believe, acted 
quite as badly. The dynasty extends back for one hun- 
dred and thirty years, and is stained with bloody crimes. 
One of the old kings drowned his uncle, who was said to 
have conspired against him, and then proceeded to pass 
his life in fishing and drinking. His fondness for water 
was confined to that in which he found his piscatory 
pleasures, and he soon procured for himself the name of 
the " drunken fishing king." Another ancestor, no 
further back than 1781, reigned only seven days. He 
was then deposed, placed in a red sack, and thrown into 
the river, his queens and concubines being burned alive. 
His successor destroyed an entire village where a con- 
spiracy had been discovered. All the inhabitants, young 
and old, and of both sexes, were dragged forth and com- 



AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 209 

mitted to the flames. Even the priests did not escape. 
All perished together on a gigantic pile of wood which 
had been erected for that infernal purpose. The village 
houses were then razed, the ground was plowed, and a 
stone was erected as a commemoration, a malediction, and 
a warning. One king used to punish his delinquent min- 
isters by spreading them upon their backs in the glare 
of the sun, with weights on their chests, till they expired. 
From 1837 to 1845 King Tharawadi led a life of the 
most royal debauchery and imperial intoxication. His 
favorite pastime was to assassinate a once favorite minis- 
ter or companion who had suddenly become inimical. 
He paid the penalty of this murderous sport by being 
smothered to death in the recesses of his palace. His 
amiable son and successor devoted his regal genius to 
cock-fighting, ram-fighting, and gambling. To compile 
a catalogue of the executions that took place during his 
reign would tire the wrist and patience of a Hercules. 
King Theebau, therefore, may be thought worthy of the 
blood which sends its ferocious corpuscles coursing 
through his veins. 

The people of Burmah, as will be gathered from the 
foregoing remarks, have long been accustomed to scenes 
of violence and bloodshed. They are simply slaves to the 
lust and rapacity of their ruler. It is for this reason that 
the holocaust reported to have been offered by King 
Theebau may perhaps have been a fact. Astrologers are 
an influential sect in this remote part of the world, and it 
is not improbable that so stupendous a sacrifice was insti- 



210 AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 

gated by them. No nation on earth, excepting the Hin- 
doo, are so superstitious. They practice divination, they 
believe in witches, they wear talismans, and they use love 
philters. As fatalists they rival the Arab and the Turk. 
Their religion, that of Buddha, forbids the killing of any 
of the lower animals ; perhaps it is on this account that 
they take revenge on their own species, and count man's 
life of little worth. For instance, if a person is accident- 
ally killed by another, reparation is made by paying the 
price of his or her body, according to a nicely adjusted 
scale, which takes even the thousandth part of a dollar 
into account. I have heard of people being killed by 
inches, but never, until I went to Burmah, did I know that 
their lives were valued by mills. But in this strange land 
the life of a new-born male child is gauged at $2.50 ; that 
of a female child, $1.75. One would like to understand 
the moral principle which underlies the difference in 
these equations. A young boy is valued at $6.25 ; a girl 
at $4,371-. The price at which a young man is estimated 
is $18.75 ; a young woman, $20.62^. Upon what physical 
or psychical basis should there be this differentiation, 
amounting to $1.87|- ? The Burmese consciousness alone 
can tell. Though these are ridiculously low valuations, 
the greatest intrinsic worth is attached by this nation to 
its young women. The elephant, however, is valued at 
$50, or more than double the rate at which the charms of 
the most highly appraised human being are measured. 
But, in fact, the royal white elephant takes rank imme- 
diately after the royal family. The Cambodian king is 



AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 211 

actually styled the first cousin of the white elephant; 
and had Theebau died from his excesses, the Burmese, in 
the absence of all legitimate successors, might have taken 
a new departure, and allowed this noble and illustrious 
animal to ascend the blood-empurpled throne. 

King Theebau does not appear to advantage when 
compared with his royal neighbors the King of Cam- 
bodia and the brilliant young potentate of Siam. These 
three peoples and countries are similar in many respects ; 
the chief difference is in their rulers. A number of years 
ago, contrary to all Eastern tradition and etiquette, the 
monarchs of Siam and Cambodia vacated their respect- 
ive thrones for a while, and traveled the one to Java 
and India, and the other to Pekin and Hong-Kong. 
Even so limited a view of the outside world as this, and 
amid nations not totally at variance with themselves in 
the general significance of their institutions, must ha\e 
materially broadened the ideas of these semi - civilized 
monarchs. The only journey ever made by Theebau was 
the involuntary one to Madras, as a prisoner of the Brit- 
ish Grovernment. 

Away from Mandalay I found the Burmese a simple- 
minded, indolent race, frank and courteous, fond of 
amusement, delighting in gay- colored apparel, friendly 
among themselves, and hospitable to strangers. But in 
the capital the tyrannous rapacity of the King and the 
unblushing venality of his officers created an influence 
which was but too sadly reflected in the bearing and de- 
portment of the people. Throughout Burmah there were 



212 AN ORIENTAL MONSTER. 

the strangest minglings of truth and error, sense and 
fatuity. For the past twenty years the country has been 
in a unique state of transition, and the conflict between 
old barbarism and new civilization has produced the effect 
of a rainbow illuminating chaos. Burmah, unlike Japan, 
has not yet become magnetized by Europe and America. 
Still, something has been effected, not only by English, 
French, and Italian merchants, but by the American mis- 
sionary. A French protectorate has made Cambodia 
known to civilization and recognized by commerce. Un- 
der an English protectorate Burmah will speedily realize 
law and order where anarchy and panic have so long pre- 
vailed. Something like this is needed for the salvation of 
a nation stopped on its march to progress by the mon- 
strous vagaries of a barbarian maddened with despotism 
and drink. 



V. 
THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

" The empire is dead — long live the republic ! " Such 
is the exclamation which many democrats who saw no 
good in the form of government administered by Dom 
Pedro doubtless made when news came that he was de- 
throned. Yet if republicans can ever feel entirely justi- 
fied in sympathizing profoundly with the political misfor- 
tunes of any discrowned sovereign, such justification may 
eminently be felt in the case of the recent monarch of 
Brazil. Born to a throne, he never prated of the right 
divine. Glorified by the nimbus of a crown, he put it on 
and off as a gentleman dons and doffs his hat. He used 
his scepter to free the enslaved. It became in his hands 
a divining rod by which he found out where evil flour- 
ished that he might charm it away if possible. He was 
more democratic, not only in manner, but in feeling, 
than many a self-made millionaire who fought his way 
from the gutter among the democracy of our own United 
States. 

It is for these reasons, and because the change of 
Brazil from an empire to a republic has been accom- 



214: THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

plished with such astonishing celerity, that attention is 
almost equally riveted upon the dethroners and the de- 
throned. The people in this country do not cease to care 
what becomes of Dom Pedro because they care very much 
what becomes of the nation he no longer rules. The 
Brazilians have begun without bloodshed an experiment 
which with us was baptized in blood, and is now a cent- 
ury old. In fact, our interest is quickened in all the 
States of South and Central America, which, until re- 
cently, seemed so languid in political importance and so 
remote in commercial advantages. When we remember 
that the ex-Emperor is living thousands of miles from the 
capital where he seemed to reign in such affectionate 
security; that the action taken by the new congress 
which is soon to assemble at Eio Janeiro can not fail to be 
momentous ; that the deliberations of the Pan-American 
Conference at Washington are full of significance ; that 
the outlook of the Central American Federation is de- 
cidedly favorable ; that the genius of progress still pre- 
sides over the Nicaragua Canal ; and that even the great 
intercontinental railway from Mexico to the Argentine 
Republic promises inception — the social and political 
questions that arise brim with more than ordinary im- 
portance and concern. 

Out from among these complicated movements, the 
Brazilian phenomenon stands in startling picturesque- 
ness. The Protean metamorphosis may be compared to 
an explosion without noise, an earthquake without shock, 
a cyclone without ruin. A dynasty has been dissolved as 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 215 

quietly as a pearl in yinegar. The depreciation of the 
national securities upon the stock exchanges of Europe 
and the United States has been only nominal. True, 
everybody in Brazil had been looking forward to a repub- 
lic, but not until after Dom Pedro's death. There was no 
personal antagonism to the Emperor. Treason, disguised 
as a courtier, did not fawn around the steps of the throne 
the better to devise how best to level them. The ruler 
was respected and beloved by all classes. The merit 
of his character gave glory to his royal investiture. The 
kinghood of the man gave manhood to the king. This 
fact will connect his name imperishably with the history 
of Brazil and survive provisional manifestoes, a definite 
government named by the people, and the creation of a 
new constitution. 

A few years ago I had the honor of several interviews 
with Dom Pedro, when he was at the height of his popu- 
larity and power. These interviews took place at his 
palace in Eio Janeiro and at his summer residence at 
Petropolis, and are described in detail in my volume 
Around and About South America, which has recently 
been published. My recollections of Petropolis are espe- 
cially durable, because it has all the sylvan attractions of a 
summer capital, and because it was there that the Empe- 
ror made his dignified and pathetic reply when informed 
of his deposition. It is only twenty-five miles from Rio 
Janeiro, and is the most famous and best patronized of 
all the neighboring mountain resorts. There Dom Pedro 
and his household resided during the heats of summer, 



216 THE EXILED EMPEROK 

when the ghastly yellow fever threatened the metropolis, 
which has not yet been able to protect itself against the 
fatal visitant ; thither the diplomatic corps and the na- 
tive aristocracy followed in the suite of sovereignty, their 
own health and safety happily compatible with the re- 
quirements of court etiquette. There, too, flocked the 
families of wealthy Eio Janeiro merchants, the hillsides 
and valleys being speckled with cottages and hotels, men 
of business going and returning every day. The situation 
of Petropolis is romantic and beautiful. It stands amid 
a cluster of hills, twenty-seven hundred feet above the 
level of the sea. Though warm during the day, the 
nights are generally cool, and the air is always pure and 
wholesome. The broad streets are lined with trees, whose 
intermingling shadows repose the exacting eye should 
even verdure fatigue it. The houses are gayly painted 
and tastefully ornamented, and the grounds surrounding 
them are broken up with flowers which grow with all the 
profusion of nature and display all the delicate enhance- 
ments of art. Drives and walks, beautiful and irregular 
as veins of gold in quartz, radiate in all directions. The 
population is about ten thousand, among whom are many 
Germans. In fact, the general appearance of Petropolis 
is more German than Brazilian, the alleged reason being 
that forty or fifty years ago a colony of three thousand 
Teutons established themselves there. Altogether, it is a 
delightful sanitarium, where Easselas might have been 
happy and Candide might have arrived at sounder con- 
clusions respecting the philosophy of life. 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 217 

Upon the day appointed by Dom Pedro for my recep- 
tion, when I made my exit from the door of the railway 
station at Petropolis, there upon the sidewalk, with but a 
single attendant, stood the most democratic of monarchs, 
the Emperor of Brazil. So little apparent was the burden 
of a crown that his Majesty had the aspect of a com- 
moner out for a stroll and halting at the station to see 
the new arrivals. His easy manner was marked by that 
entire absence of condescension which is thoughtlessly de- 
scribed as condescending, and was more like that of a 
civilian nodding to acquaintances than of a sovereign ac- 
knowledging the salutations of his subjects. 

The imperial palace at Petropolis consists of a large 
two-story main building, with long, single-story wings, 
the whole made of brick and stucco, painted yellow and 
white, and of a style of architecture resembling that of a 
Florentine villa. To the most commonplace visitor it 
ought now to have a deeper interest of association than 
the villa of Napoleon III., pointed out to tourists at 
Vichy. It is surrounded by gardens and walks, in the 
turns and intricacies of which are found pleasant fount- 
ains and charming pavilions. The interior is plain but 
commodious. ]N"ot far distant was the residence of the 
princess imperial, a by no means imposing house, which, 
however, derived a beauty from the encircling mass of 
ever-blooming flowers. The Brazilian royalties generally 
took the air in barouches drawn by four mules, with pos- 
tilions, and a single mounted orderly, and doubtless never 

dreamed the time would come when they should take it 
16 



218 THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

at a day's notice in a steamer bound for Lisbon, or in 
lodgings engaged at a Continental liotel. They dreamed 
of it no more than I did, when, entering the palace, noth- 
ing was further from my thoughts than that the Provis- 
ional Government would inform the Emperor that his 
reign was over, and that he should reply, with scornful 
austerity : " I resolve to submit to the command of circum- 
stances, to depart with my family for Europe to-morrow, 
leaving this beloved country which I have tried to give 
firm testimony of my affectionate love and my dedication 
during nearly half a century as chief of the state. I shall 
always have kindly remembrances of Brazil and hopes for 
its prosperity." 

Everybody who has read much about Dom Pedro 
knows that his life at Petropolis, as elsewhere, was a very 
active one. It was not the restless and nervous activity 
of a Napoleon, who, whether he had Europe or Elba at 
his command, was bent upon making everything and 
everybody subservient to the caprices of his will. On the 
contrary, it was the Avell-directed energy of a highly cul- 
tivated and benevolent intellect, that desired less to rule 
than to have the benefit of his rule realized in the sphere 
over which it was exerted. His character had numerous 
facets. There was nothing of the uncut diamond about 
him. He was developed upon many sides, morally, men- 
tally, and physically. He had seduously prepared him- 
self for his social and political duties. What Lord Ches- 
terfield was as a mere man of the world, Dom Pedro tried 
to make himself within the radius of a much more ex- 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 219 

tended and august influence. He neglected the body no 
more than the mind. He liked to take long drives and 
walks, and in his less mature days delighted in athletic 
exercises. He was compelled to relinquish these in great 
measure, more because of encroaching infirmities than 
because of that sort of decadence which is attributable to 
old age alone. 

I am afraid that the popular impression in regard to 
the employments of royalties is founded, to a certain ex- 
tent, upon the nursery tradition which sets forth that 
*' the king was in his parlor counting out his money, the 
queen was in the kitchen eating bread and honey." Too 
many of us retain the convictions derived from early pict- 
ure books, which represent the monarch, generally upon 
his throne, wearing a spiked crown (too painfully sug- 
gestive, however, of a crown of gilded thorns), his per- 
son covered with a gorgeous cloak spotted with dabs of 
ermine, and filling up the time between banquets by 
ordering recalcitrant courtiers to instant execution. We 
think of these conventional monarchs as going to bed 
still with their crowns on and their maces in their hands, 
much as they are represented in effigy on the tombs in 
Westminster Abbey. All these naive ideas have to be 
fundamentally modified in regard to the ex-Emperor of 
Brazil. He was simply a gentleman with a scepter, a 
scholar in robes of state. He wielded the rod of empire 
as easily as a man in private life twirls a walking-stick. 
In 1876, when he landed in this city from Brazil, he 
arrived at his hotel wearing a linen duster and carrying 



220 THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

a satchel. Only one other potentate landed as modestly 
— and that was Herbert Spencer. 

All of us remember how Dom Pedro spent his time 
while here. He was out on the street at six in the morn- 
ing, while his staff were still in bed, going everywhere, 
observing everything, and questioning everybody. He 
would have made a reporter of the first class had he not 
been a king. In perceiving, inquiring, and investigating, 
he ignored the divinity which is said to hedge the purple. 
In reaching the throne he had never had to use his el- 
bows. He was more than willing to use them in getting 
at the real interests of the multitude. He was devoted to 
art and literature, to science and languages, and, to find 
time for this, he willingly dispensed with the cumbrous 
ceremonial and gorgeous festivities of a court. He speaks 
all the European languages fluently, and, at the time he 
received me at Petropolis, he was deep in the study of 
Sanskrit, though I am not warranted in saying that this 
was preparatory to a course of Theosophy, at present so 
universal a fad among cultivated persons. Dom Pedro 
studying Sanskrit at sixty was as interesting as Cato 
learning Greek at eighty, for Cato had certainly the more 
time of the two. The Emperor did not lose many min- 
utes, for even while riding through the streets of Rio he 
generally sat bareheaded, his eyes fixed upon a book. 

In fact, his mixture of intellectual and physical 
activity was remarkable. I have just read, in a Portu- 
guese newspaper, an account of his life in Paris while on 
a visit to Europe for the restoration of his health. It is 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 221 

amazing tliat an invalid should so sport with yitality, if 
so profuse an expenditure of strength on legitimate ob- 
jects may correctly be termed sport. Among scientists 
whom he visited was the celebrated astronomer Camille 
Flammarion. Attended by a suite of twenty persons, 
Dom Pedro explored the astronomer's library and ob- 
servatory, and examined his scientific collections and in- 
struments. The gyrating dome contained a large equa- 
torial telescope, an instrument of great precision, the 
management of which, however, was entirely familiar to 
the imperial visitor. The man who was really the fash- 
ion in the capital which has the reputation of making a 
worship of frivolity was the man who is now ex-Emperor. 
The only visitor who has since eclipsed him is our own 
Edison, who created as much sensation among the re- 
publicans as Franklin, the first tamer of the lightning, 
did among the court of which he was the cynosure. Dom 
Pedro, living at the Grand Hotel, admitted a constant 
stream of visitors, and ran as much danger of " making 
himself common " as the President of the United States 
during a hand-shaking at the White House. He talked 
to all intelligently and modestly, reserving to himself the 
right, conceded alone to kings and journalists, of asking 
questions. His walk in life there was a tessellated pave- 
ment of business and pleasure. After frequenting scien- 
tific institutions, he indulged society with his presence 
by attending balls. Whatever interested humanity ap- 
peared to come within his ken. Balzac called himself 
the secretary of society, inasmuch as he professed to do 



222 THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

nothing but record his observations of it. Dom Pedro 
was also its secretary in a more restricted sense, for his 
observations, though not recorded for the public eye, 
were made with unflagging industry upon a vast range 
of material. He saw all the notable pictures, he was 
fond of meeting great artists. He did not forget 
the conservatory, he remembered the race -course, he 
was seen upon the exchange, and he applauded at the 
opera. 

With but one exception, the reign of Dom Pedro is 
longer than that of any other living monarch. The ac- 
cession of Queen Victoria preceded his by four years. It 
was during his reign, and through his exertions and in- 
fluence, that Brazil grew steadily in power and stand- 
ing. Few persons realize that that country is nearly as 
as large as Europe, larger than the United States was pre- 
vious to the acquisition of Alaska. Of the South Amer- 
can states it is the first, not only in size, but also in en- 
lightenment and importance. It has vast resources. Its 
soil is fertile, its pastures are immense, its forests are 
gigantic, its store of minerals and precious stones is ap- 
parently exhaustless. The national finances are in a pros- 
perous condition. Railways have been built, telegraph 
and cable lines have been extended in all directions, and 
all the large rivers have been made navigable. In these 
things, as well as in the abolition of slavery and the inter- 
ests of free education throughout the empire, the hand of 
Dom Pedro has been felt. Procrastination in a good 
cause was not his vice. He can not be thought of as 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 223 

deliberately putting off till the last moment anything 
necessary — excepting death itself. 

But, after all, the vital question is whether a republic 
in Brazil is likely to prove a success. We are not reas- 
sured on recalling the history of the neighboring repub- 
lics which are peopled by a similar race. N"evertheless, 
had not Brazil been so nearly a republic in everything but 
name, it is doubtful whether the empire would have lasted 
so long. Governments, like religions, to be useful and 
abiding must be suited to the genius of the people who 
adopt them. Time alone can prove whether the sover- 
eign power of representatives elected by the people is 
better for the Brazilians than a limited constitutional 
monarchy. As the talented and original Marie Bashkirt- 
seff remarks in her suggestive diary that is now being so 
widely read : " No other form of government can be com- 
pared to the ideal republic ; but a republic is like ermine 
— the slightest blemish upon it renders it worthless." 

Will the republic of Brazil attain this lofty standard ? 
Every worthy citizen of the United States should ardently 
hope so. 

The military dictatorship, that constitutes the Provis- 
ional Government in Brazil, has the sympathy of the 
country, as is shown by the acceptance of the republic by 
all the provinces with very little hesitation, Bahia alone, 
the conservative original capital, mildly protesting against 
the overthrow of monarchy. 

The persistence of the new authorities in destroying 
all visible traces of the empire has shown the intensity of 



224 THE EXILED EMPEROR. 

the republican animus. After the imperial coat-of- 
arms and flag were ordered down from all buildings, the 
streets rechristened which were named after the Emperor 
and his family, and the word " imperial " stricken from 
the common use, the Government ungenerously ordered 
that the " Dom Pedro II. Railway " be known hereafter as 
" The Central Railway of Brazil," and that the " Pedro II. 
College " should be " The National Institution of In- 
struction." In both of these the Emperor took great 
interest, and it will be impossible by the elimination of 
his name to suppress the identity of these and similar un- 
dertakings with his breadth of purpose. 

The first move of the new Government in decreeing 
universal suffrage, instead of the educationally and pecun- 
iarily limited suffrage of the old regi7ne, and in dispensing 
extraordinary power for the state governments, has in- 
sured a broad popularity for its administration, even 
though the army sustaining the new Government has been 
largely increased. The words of Senator Paulo, ex-min- 
ister of two conservative cabinets, are illustrative of the 
general acceptance of the situation : " In the present cir- 
cumstances, in view of the accomplished fact of the 
pacific revolution that proclaimed the republic, and tak- 
ing into consideration the manner in which the popula- 
tion welcomed it and accompanies the logical develop- 
ments of its consequences, the principal preoccupation of 
Brazilians is the necessity for maintaining order. . . . 
The Provisional Government will have our decided sup- 
port so long as it keeps within the limits traced by the 



THE EXILED EMPEROR. 225 

duty of securing tlie free manifestation of the national 
vote for the organization of the definite form of govern- 
ment. We believe that we express the opinion of all, or 
nearly all, the citizens, whatever be their political con- 
nections or affiliations with the parties to which they be- 
longed." 

The last move of the Eonseca Government, in post- 
poning the fii*st national election until next fall and in 
revoking the financial allowances made to Dom Pedro 
on the eve of his departure, are not calculated to inspire 
confidence in the intrinsic strength of the leaders, and 
the recent news of the death of the ex-Empress and her 
last words, "Poor Brazil!" condoling the misfortunes 
fallen upon the land of her constant thoughts, may cause 
an imperial reaction. But whatever the result, the world 
will always remember the wisdom and the kindhearted- 
ness of the Emperor whom Gladstone termed " the model 
ruler." 



VI. 

WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

It is three hundred years since the Western World 
recei\red the first extended account of the wonderful 
white elephant. This account came from an English- 
man, named Fitch, (who must have encountered great 
difficulties in traveling through Burmah at that time), 
and may be found in Hakluyt's quaint and famous 
Collection of !N"auigations, Traffiques, and Discoueries. 
This tells us that at that time the King of Burmah had 
four white elephants, which were very strange and rare. 
It also records that if any other king had one, the 
Burmese King would send for it, and would rather lose 
part of his kingdom than not get it. The chronicle 
further tells us that when any white elephant was taken 
to the king, all the merchants of the city were com- 
manded to visit it, upon which occasion each of them 
presented it with half a ducat. As there were a great 
many merchants, this made a good round sum. At that 
time the white elephant stood in the king's house, and 
received great honor and service. Each of them had an 
apartment of its own, decorated with golden ornaments, 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. . 227 

and ate its food from gold and silver vessels. Every day, 
when they went to the river to bathe, canopies of silk or 
cloth-of-gold were held over them, and drums, clarionets, 
or other instruments accompanied them. As they came 
out of the river each had a gentleman in waiting to wash 
its feet in a silver basin, an officer being appointed for 
that honor by the king. The black elephants were not 
so well treated. They were evidently regarded as the 
canaille^ though some of them were very handsome and 
fully nine cubits, or thirteen feet and a half, high. 

We next hear of the white elephant from Father San- 
germano, a Jesuit priest who labored in Burmah in the 
last quarter of the seventeenth century. He gives an 
account of the capture, transportation, and more than 
royal treatment of this fortunate variety. He tells us that, 
when caught in the forests of Pegu, it was bound with 
scarlet cords, and was waited on by the highest mandarins 
of the empire ; that numerous servants were appointed to 
keep it clean, to serve it daily with the freshest herbs, 
and to provide it with everything that could add pleasure 
to the sense of existence. As the place where it was capt- 
ured was infested with mosquitoes, an exquisite silken net 
was made for its protection. To preserve it from other 
harm, mandarins and guards watched it day and night. 
No sooner had news of the capture spread abroad than 
immense multitudes of both sexes and every age and con- 
dition flocked to this central point. They came not only 
from the neighborhood, but from the most remote prov- 
inces. Finally, the king gave orders for the removal of 



228 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

the elephant to the capital. Immediately two boats of 
teak-wood were fastened together, and upon them was 
erected a superb pavilion, with a pyramidal roof similar 
to that which covered the royal palace. It was made 
impervious to both sun and rain, and draperies of gold- 
embroidered silk adorned it on every side. This splendid 
pavilion was towed up the river by three large and beau- 
tiful gilded vessels filled with rowers. The king and 
royal family sent frequently for tidings of the elephant's 
health, and forwarded rich presents in their name. To 
celebrate its arrival in the city a grand festival, which in- 
cluded music, dancing, and fire- works, was held for three 
days. The most costly offerings were contributed by all 
the mandarins in the kingdom, and one of these offerings 
consisted of a vase of gold weighing four hundred and 
eighty ounces. It is painful to be compelled to add, 
however, that all the gold and silver articles contributed 
eventually found their way into the royal treasury. 

The particular animal here mentioned was as much 
honored at its demise as during its life. Being a female, 
its funeral was conducted with the same rites and cere- 
monies as those observed at the death of a queen. The 
body was burned upon a pile composed of sassafras, 
sandal, and other aromatic woods, the pyre being kin- 
dled with the aid of four immense gilded bellows blown 
at the corners. Three days after the ashes were gathered 
by the chief mandarins, enshrined in gilt urns, and bur- 
ied in the royal cemetery. A superb pjrramidal mauso- 
leum, built of brick and richly painted and gilded, was 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 229 

subsequently raised over the tomb. If this elephant had 
been a male, it would have had the same obsequies as 
those used at the death of a sovereign. 

The first introduction I ever had to a white elephant 
was apropos of my audience with the King of Burmah, 
at Mandalay, his capital, during my travels through 
Farther India. King Mounglon, the father of the no- 
torious Theebau, was then upon the Burmese throne. 
The audience chamber was arranged somewhat theatri- 
cally. A green baize curtain descended from ceiling to 
floor. A few feet above the floor this curtain presented 
a proscenium-like opening, ten feet square, which brought 
into view a luxurious alcove. Within this alcove his 
Majesty was seated upon the floor, resting against a 
velvet cushion, with a cup, a betel-box, a carafe, a golden 
cuspidor, and a pair of silver-mounted binoculars within 
reach. He was short, stout, fifty -five, and pleasant, 
though crafty-looking. He was dressed in a white linen 
jacket and a silk cloth around the hips and legs. After 
staring at me a shockingly long while through his binocu- 
lars, he became interested to an unseemly extent in my 
age, my father's business, my design in traveling, and 
other personal matters. First, he made up his mind that 
I was a downright spy ; then he concluded that I was a 
political adventurer ; finally, it slowly dawned upon him 
that I was traveling simply for pleasure, and perhaps it 
was with the benevolent desire of enhancing that pleasure 
to the utmost that he offered me an unlimited number of 
wives (I did not inquire whose) on condition that I would 



230 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

permanently settle there. Happily, the puritanical prin- 
ciples in which I had been educated enabled me to with- 
stand the shock. St. Anthony could not have behaved 
better in the circumstances than I did ; and, besides, St. 
Anthony's temptations merely existed in the abstract, 
while mine were almost within grasp. Perhaps I ought 
to add that I did not feel like entering the King's service 
just at that time. While refusing all his kind offers 
through an interpreter — and his Majesty offered me a 
palace and a title, as well as a fortune, in addition to a 
harem practically infinite — I succeeded in mollifying him 
with the present of a handsome magnifying-glass, which 
I had taken with me from Calcutta for the express pur- 
pose. This glass had a bright gilt rim and an ivory 
handle. Though it passed into the King's hands then 
and there, I have ever since seen through it everything 
that is good in Burmah. 

It was while the glow of this visit was fresh upon me 
that I descended to the royal court-yard and there found, 
in a sort of palace by itself, a specimen of the sacred 
white elephant of which the world has heard so much 
and seen so little. The creature was of medium size, 
with whitish eyes. Its forehead, trunk, and ears were 
spotted with white, and looked as though their natural 
color had been removed by a vigorous application of 
pumice-stone or sand-paper. The remainder of the body 
was of the ordinary dark hue, so that it was impossible 
for me to say that I was contemplating a white elephant 
par excellence. The animal stood, I wish I could say, in 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 231 

milk-wliite majesty ; but, to tell the truth, its majesty was 
somewhat mouse-colored. It receiyed me beneath a great 
embroidered canopy, a fetter on one of its forelegs being 
the only obvious symbol of captivity. This holy ele- 
phant had an intensely vicious look, so that I was fain to 
hope that behind a frowning providence it hid a smiling 
face. Umbrellas in gold and red occupied adjacent nooks 
in company with Koman-like fasces and silver-tipped 
spears and axes. The floor was networked with silver. 
Water jars and eating troughs, also of silver, were at hand 
to relieve its thirst and hunger. Fresh-cut grass and 
bananas were its staple diet, though it also delights in 
rice, sugar-cane, cocoanuts, cakes, and candies. The 
water it drinks is perfumed with flowers or tinctured with 
palm wine. The average daily food it consumes reaches 
the modest weight of two hundred pounds. Instead of 
its name, as we would place that of a valuable and favor- 
ite horse, a description of the animal, painted on a red 
tablet, was hung over one of the pillars of its stall. It 
ran as follows: "An elephant of beautiful color; hair, 
nails, and eyes are white. Perfection in form, with all 
signs of regularity of the high family. The color of the 
skin is that of the lotus. A descendant of the angels of 
the Brahmans. Acquired as property by the power and 
glory of the King for his service. Is equal to the crystal 
of the highest value. Is of the highest family of all in 
existence. A source of power of attraction of rain. It 
is as pure as the purest crystal of the highest value in 
the world." 



232 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

The attendant priest told me that a baby white ele- 
phant, which had been captured in the northeastern part 
of British Burmah, had recently died in the capital, after 
a short residence there, and that the King had been " out 
of sorts" ever since. The precious infant had been 
nursed by twelve native women, especially selected for 
the honor, and for which service they were paid, my mat- 
ter-of-fact informant added, fifty rupees, or twenty-five 
dollars, a month. But despite the caressing care of these 
improvised foster-mothers, their adolescent charge, as I 
have said, died, and the whole nation went into mourn- 
ing, all occupations ceasing for several days, and the en- 
tire population shaving their heads. 

As I stood contemplating the animal, it was not diffi- 
cult for me to realize that, had it occupied its present po- 
sition a century ago, gold chain nets and silver bells 
would have crowned its head, gay and richly embroidered 
cushions would have rested upon its back, while here and 
there would have gleamed strings of pearl and coin in 
miscellaneous decoration. Its tusks would have glittered 
with massive rings of gold, studded frequently with daz- 
zling jewels. Each evening music would have allured it 
to sleep with the choicest melodies to Farther India 
known. Trumpets and drums and a large retinue would 
have preceded it to the bath, whither it would have been 
conducted with a large red umbrella held over it by some 
of the highest dignitaries. Young maidens would have 
strewed its path with rarest flowers, which it would have 
picked up at will, first smelling them by virtue of its pas- 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 233 

sionate deliglit in perfumes, and tlien carrying tliem to 
its mouth, where they would have been apt to be sacri- 
ficed to the grosser sense of taste. Save for this occa- 
sional bath, however, all sacred elephants rarely leave 
their palace cells, except upon great feast days, when they 
always head the procession. Amid these happy condi- 
tions — ^provided they do not die of astonishment or suc- 
cumb to indigestion — each might live to be a centenarian, 
rejoicing in a weight of two tons and a height of seven 
feet. And so profound is the Indo-Chinese belief in 
omens that an unusual grunt from this potentate is quite 
sufficient to interrupt the most important affairs and 
break the most solemn engagements. Consequently, the 
kingdom where one of these blonde and cyclopean beasts 
resides is thought to be rich and not liable to change, and 
the king is congratulated on being long-lived and invin- 
cible. Through his elephantine sympathies, he believes 
himself a partaker of the divine nature. In the Pali 
scriptures it is duly set forth that the form under which 
Buddha will descend to earth for the last time will be 
that of a beautiful young white elephant, open-jawed, 
with a head the color of cochineal, with tusks shining 
like silver, sparkling with gems, covered with a splendid 
netting of gold, perfect in organs and limbs, and majestic 
in appearance. From what I have said it is evident that 
in Farther India the more white elephants a state owns 
the more powerful it is supposed to be. The honors 
which the creature therefore enjoys are almost limitless. 

The white elephant is often praised in language more 
16 



234 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

suggestive of Solomon's Song than anything else. Take, 
for instance, this passage : " His tusks are like long 
pearls ; his ears like silver shields ; his trunk like a com- 
et's tail ; his legs like the feet of the skies ; his tread like 
the sound of thunder ; his looks full of meditation ; his 
expression full of tenderness; his voice the voice of a 
mighty warrior," etc. This homage and superstition are 
reflected in the very titles and offices of the rulers and 
great men of Farther India. In ancient Burmah the king 
assumed the title " Lord of the Spotted Elephant." At 
the present day the King of Cambodia is styled " First 
Cousin of the White Elephant " ; the Prime Minister of 
Siam, " General of the Elephants " ; the Foreign Minister 
of Annam, " Mandarin of Elephants " ; while the kings 
of Burmah and Siam both enjoy the still higher appella- 
tions, " Lord of the Celestial Elephant " and " Master of. 
Many White Elephants." In Siam, too, everything bears 
the image of this lordly mammoth, to whose proportions, 
when in repose and when a pure albino, Mrs. Browning 
might have appropriately referred in that paradoxical line 
which speaks of " thunders of white silence." Like the 
lion in the Persian banner, the llama in the Peruvian, or 
the peacock in the Burmese, so the white elephant is em- 
blazoned proudly in the banner of the Siamese. A badge 
of distinction is similarly created, and has become a cov- 
eted native decoration. 

The constant companions of the pale proboscidian 
whose acquaintance I made, and, indeed, of all that vari- 
ety, are white monkeys. Both the Burmese and the Siam- 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 235 

ese believe that evil spirits may be thus propitiated. As it 
is necessary to guard the white elephant from superhuman 
assault and influence, several white monkeys are generally 
kept in its stables. These monkeys are not reverenced 
for themselves, but for the protection — especially protec- 
tion from sickness — which they are supposed to give to 
their gigantic comrade. They are generally large, ugly, 
long-tailed baboons, thickly covered with fur as white as 
that of the whitest rabbit. As a rule, they are in perfect 
health and veritable demons of mischief. Captured more 
frequently than the white elephant, they enjoy about the 
same privileges as it, having households and officers of 
their own, but they are always obliged to yield it the pre- 
cedence. There is encouragement to Darwinians in the 
Siamese saying that the white monkey is. a man and a 
brother — I might almost say a man and a Buddha. Upon 
that principle, civilized man, instead of being a little 
lower than the angels, is a little higher than the apes. 

It will easily be believed that the capture of white ele- 
phants forms an important portion of Burmese and Siam- 
ese annals. In Siam only twenty-four were secured 
during all the thirteen hundred and fifty-two years that 
elapsed from A. d. 515 to a. d. 1867, covering the reigns 
of thirty-eight kings. This makes about one elephant for 
every cycle of fifty-six years. Of this number, several 
categories being made, eleven belong to the first. Even 
the great French naturalist Cuvier, in his celebrated 
Regne Animal, does not refer to such a phenomenon. 
The discoverer of a white elephant is rewarded with rank, 



236 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 



office, title, and estates, together with a purse of about 
fifteen hundred dollars in gold — a large sum in white-ele- 
phant regions. A very high and dignified position, to 
which the fortunate capturer is frequently raised, is that 
of " water-carrier to the white elephant." He is granted 
land free from, taxation, and as spacious as the area over 
which the animal's trumpet cry can be heard. He and 
his family, to the third generation, are exempted from 
servitude. 




It should be borne in mind, however, that Siam is in 
no exclusive sense the land of the white elephant, since 
its habitat is the entire central portion of the great 
peninsula of southeastern Asia, styled Farther India, or 
Indo-China, and extending from the Bay of Bengal on 
the west to the China Sea on the east. In fact, the 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 237 

"white wonder" is seldom found within the strict 
boundaries of the Kingdom of Siam. Readers, and per- 
haps travelers, have been misled by the fact that the 
royal banner of that kingdom is a white elephant on a 
crimson field. But we do not look for unicorns and lions 
in Great Britain because they are emblazoned on her 
escutcheon, or for dragons in China for the reason that 
they are pictured on her flag. 

White elephants have been the cause of many a war, 
and their possession is more an object of envy than the 
conquest of territory or the transitory glories of the 
battle field. Once the King of Siam possessed seven of 
these pallid pachyderms, and the King of Burmah asked 
that two should be given him, which modest request 
being denied, the Burmese invaded Siam with a great army 
of men, horses, and war elephants, marched upon the 
capital, and captured four of the hallowed monsters 
instead of the two originally demanded. The repute in 
which they are held by the court and people and the 
great anxiety there is to obtain them sometimes cause the 
destruction of much property. Thus, on one occasion, 
when a report was brought concerning the projected capt- 
ure of a white elephant which had been discovered, and 
the transport of which to the capital over the cultivated 
country would destroy ten thousand baskets of rice, the 
king is said still to have ordered the hunt, exclaiming, 
" What signifies the destruction of ten thousand baskets 
of rice in comparison with the possession of a white 
elephant ! " 



238 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

Sir John Bowring, on the occasion of negotiating a 
treaty between England and Siam, some thirty-five years 
since, received many valuable presents from the king; 
but finally his Majesty placed in his hands a golden box, 
locked with a golden key, and containing, he informed 
him, a gift far more valuable than all the rest, and that 
was a few hairs of the white elephant ! Most wonderful 
of all, however, is the compliment which one of the 
Siamese ambassadors, who some years ago visited the 
court of England, paid to her Majesty, the Queen. The 
ambassador, knowing that the royal lady had passed her 
life in an atmosphere of flattery of the most indiscrimi- 
nating description, cast about for a metaphor that would 
express the sincerity of the Siamese mind and the grace 
of the Siamese court. He was not long in coming to a 
conclusion. Comparison with one of the unique beasts 
of which I am writing being considered a distinguished 
honor, the ambassador thus expressed himself : " One can 
not but be struck with the aspect of the august Queen of 
England, or fail to observe that she must be of pure 
descent from a race of goodly and warlike kings and 
rulers of the earth, in that her eyes, complexion, and, 
above all, her bearing, are those of a beautiful and 
majestic white elephant." If the Queen may be likened 
to a white elephant, it is not unreasonable to ask to what 
the rest of the royal family were likened by the Siamese 
ambassador ? 

Is the white elephant white, or only so by a figure of 
speech ? To this question it is impossible to answer yes 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 239 

or no. The Siamese never speak of a white elephant, but 
of a chang pouh or strange-colored elephant. The hue 
varies from a pale yellowish or reddish brown to a rose. 
Buffon gives it as ash-gray. Judging from the specimens 
which I have seen, both at Mandalay and Bangkok, I 
should say it was generally a light gray, with spots or 
splashes of pink. The color of the true white elephant 
has that delicate shade which distinguishes the nose of a 
white horse. It has always a tinge of pink in it — that is 
to say, it is flesh-colored. The face, ears, front of trunk, 
breast, and feet, have a sort of pinkish mottled appear- 
ance, while the remainder of the body is of an ashen 
color. It should always be remembered that the term 
" white," as applied to elephants, must be received with 
qualification. In fact, the grains of salt must be numer- 
ous, for the white elephant is white only by contrast with 
those that are decidedly dark. A mulatto, for instance, 
is not absolutely white, but he is white compared with a 
full-blooded negro. The so-called white elephant is an 
occasional departure from the ordinary beast. As there 
are human albinos, so there are elephantine albinos. 
And there is a general resemblance of characteristics 
among all quadrupedal albinos. 

It is not alone the amount of pink or flesh color that 
constitutes a white elephant. This animal must possess 
certain other peculiarities. Prominent among these are 
the color of the eyes, the redness of the mouth, and the 
white or light- colored nails. In this species also the hair, 
which is for the most part yellowish, is apt to be scanter 



240 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

and shorter than in other elephants ; hence the skin, with 
its peculiar neutrality of tint shows more plainly. When 
pink patches appear, they are due to the absence of dark 
pigment in the epidermis — at least this is the explanation 
of Prof. Flower, President of the Zoological Society of 
London. The same theory accounts for the light-colored 
hair. The iris is often red, sometimes pale yellow, some- 
times pure white. When the latter is the case, the eyes 
are white-rimmed. Sometimes, too, a pink iris is visible 
in an eye that is rimmed with scarlet. I have heard it 
said, also, that the pupil is occasionally a bright red, 
though I have never seen this phenomenon. By the 
dissection of white dogs, white owls, and white rabbits, 
it has been discovered that the red color of their eyes is 
caused by the absence of dark pigment. To put the case 
in technical terms, the pigmentum nigricm of the choroid 
coat, and also that portion of it which lies behind the 
iris, and is called uvea by anatomists, is wanting. The 
peculiar fairness of the skin and hair is said by those who 
differ from Prof. Plower to be brought about by the 
absence of a membrane called rete mucosum. An albino 
elephant sees with difficulty in a strong light, but, on the 
other hand, sees better in the dark than black elephants 
do. I do not know that a scientific attempt has ever 
been made to formulate the freaks of nature, so as to pro- 
duce white elephants ad liUtum. I am inclined to think, 
however, that even the most intelligent Burmese or Siam- 
ese are not sufficiently conversant with Darwin's Vari- 
ation of Animals and Plants under Domestication to 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 241 

attempt much in this line. This yariety of stirpiculture 
will probably be left to the future. 

It is the general impression that white elephants are 
specifically different from others, but this is not the case. 
That they are distinguished from those species that have 
the ordinary color, by weakness of body, deficiency of in- 
stinct, or atrophy of mind, is abundantly refuted by facts. 
They are of ordinary size and shape, and specimens of 
both sexes are captured. When you possess an elephant 
whose color is that of a negro's palm, you possess a white 
elephant, the color not being necessarily hereditary, but 
caused by conditions so elusive that we are obliged, as a 
matter of convenience, to name the result a freak of 
nature. The hue is never a consequence of disease. 
Under identical conditions white elephants and black 
elephants are equally long-lived. Whatever in each spe- 
cies be the difference in shade, or whether the animal be 
found roaming in the forests of Laos or residing in royal 
state in the cities of Mandalay or Bangkok, I must not 
forget to say that the absolutely white elephant — white 
as pure snow is white — is never seen. As an ideal it may 
be imagined as enjoying a lonely paradise in some yet 
undiscovered jungle. 

In Farther India there are occasionally to be found 
ordinary black or dark-gray elephants which are afflicted 
with a skin disease termed by dermatologists and zoolo- 
gists leucoderma. These elephants, at a distance, some- 
what resemble the albinos, but a nearer inspection always 
shows that their eyes have neither a red, yellow, nor 



242 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

white iris ; nor have their pinkish spots a sharp outline, 
but fade gradually into the surrounding hide. In these 
respects they strikingly differ from the albino variety. 
The greatest variation, however, is noticeable in their re- 
spective valuations, the genuine sacred white elephant in 
Burmah and Siam not being purchasable from anybody, 
by anybody, upon any terms ; whereas the skin-diseased 
animal may be found without very arduous search, and 
may be readily purchased for five hundred rupees (two 
hundred and fifty dollars) or less. Notwithstanding this 
superlative distinction, ingenuous showmen have been 
known to so confuse these two varieties of elephants as 
even to exhibit the latter for the former. 

I sincerely trust that these illustrations will make the 
matter plain, though I can not feel sure that they will do 
so until a genuine white elephant is seen here, or until 
my readers go to Burmah or Siam. But if it is difficult 
for the majority of persons to understand what consti- 
tutes a white elephant, it seems to be still more difficult 
for them to understand what constitutes a sacred ele- 
phant. That there may be no further confusion upon 
this point, I volunteer the following definition, which I 
think includes all the essential attributes, and none but 
those that are essential. Those peculiar qualities that 
make a white elephant what it is, make it at the same 
time a sacred elephant. It may be said that the sanctity 
and the whiteness (or what goes for whiteness) are cor- 
relative terms. Oriental religious credulity has always 
centered in albinos. "When a Buddhist priest meets a 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 243 

white rooster, he salutes him — an honor he would not 
render to a prince. All animals that present white va- 
rieties — such as monkeys, mice, storks, sparrows, rats, 
robins, rabbits, and crows — have always been highly 
prized in the far East ; but the white elephant, being larger 
than all these put together, embodied more whiteness in 
one form, and was therefore reverenced by a people pre- 
pared for such a worship by the superstition of centuries. 
It was considered to be the temporary abode of a mighty 
Buddha. But the animal is now regarded as a deity, and 
receives divine honors only from the lower orders, who 
perform before it the sliilco or obeisance indicating sub- 
mission. The kings and the most intelligent nobles con- 
sider it an omen of good luck. It is, in fact, the " mas- 
cot " of Burmah and Siam, and to possess one is an honor 
that is envied. Even among the intelligent uppermost 
class this regard for the white elephant is carried to an 
extreme which resembles worship. The veneration paid 
has probably been somewhat exaggerated, but, in my 
opinion, the adoration lavished upon this pink personifi- 
cation of Buddha is as intense to-day as it was in earlier 
times. "When one of these beasts is captured it is blest 
and baptized in presence of the king and nobility. Bud- 
dhist priests pour upon its forehead consecrated water 
from a great conch shell, and crown it with a pyramidal 
tiara of pure gold set with sparkling gems. Thus deco- 
rated, you would almost think it could say the catechism. 
Its Holiness is then knighted, and such high-sounding 
titles as " Gem of the Sky," " Glory of the Land," " Ka- 



244 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

diance of the World," and " Leveler of the Earth " are 
conferred upon it by the King, who thus exercises his 
prerogative as " Lord of the Celestial Elephant." 

All authorities, from the English traveler Fitch, in 
1586, to the Norwegian traveler Bock, in 1882, confirm 
the above statements. In 1617 Van Schouten, a Dutch 
traveler, wrote in his Journal of a Wonderful Voyage in 
the Indies that the Siamese " believe there is something 
divine in these animals, and adduce many proofs of it." 
Father Sangerraano, the Jesuit missionary whom I have 
already mentioned, lived twenty-seven years in Burmah, 
and he says " white elephants are regarded as sacred by 
all the Indo-Chinese nations, save only the Annamese." 
Crawford, the chief of an embassy from the Governor- 
General of India to the court of Ava in 1826-'27, and 
who traveled and resided for over a year in Burmah, re- 
lates that just before he reached the capital a white ele- 
phant was captured, and the event was considered so joy- 
ous that the king issued an order to the tributaries and 
chiefs to ask pardon of the Ka-dau^ or white elephant. 
Would not this be synonymous with regarding the Ka- 
dau as a deity ? Father Brugiere, in his Annales de la 
Foi, says : " Nothing can exceed the veneration of the 
Siamese for the white elephant." Sir John Bowring, who 
has written a very learned and interesting work on The 
People and Kingdom of Siam, tells us that " the white 
elephant is reverenced as a god " ; that " in the possession 
of the sacred creature the Siamese believe that they enjoy 
the presence of Buddha himself " ; and that " with the 



WHITE ELEPHANTS. 245 

white elephant some vague notions of a vital Buddha are 
associated, and there can be no doubt that the marvelous 
sagacity of the creature has served to strengthen their 
religious prejudices. Siamese are known to whisper their 
secrets into an elephant's ear, and to ask a solution of 
their perplexities by some sign or movement. And most 
assuredly there is more sense and reason in the worship of 
an intelligent beast than in that of stocks and stones, the 
work of men's hands." Carl Bock, the latest traveler in 
Siam, says " a white elephant, however few the pale spots 
he may have, is revered throughout the length and breadth 
of the land." 

After leaving Farther India I traveled extensively in 
Ceylon, and noticed that in the religious processions the 
place of honor was always accorded to an elephant of a 
light-slate color, but having a pinkish mottled head and 
trunk — or, in other words, to a white elephant. Such 
sacred beasts as these, I was informed by a Cinghalese 
Buddhist priest, were beyond price. He told me, more- 
over, that if I wished to see the most pure and perfect in- 
carnate deities, I would find them in India-beyond-the- 
Ganges. He confided to me that the most sacred white 
elephant in all the world was then in Burmah, and that 
the fondest wish of his heart was to see it before he died. 

The reader will doubtless now be quite prepared to 
believe that the Indo-Chinese nations would no more part 
with a white elephant for money than the United States 
would sell the dome of the Capitol or the right of religious 
liberty within our free domains. Some circus agents who 



246 WHITE ELEPHANTS. 

a few years ago attempted to buy a wliite elepliant from 
the King of Siam, at Bangkok, barely escaped with their 
lives, so intense was the popular indignation at the sacri- 
legious proposition. There is absolutely no possibility 
that even so reckless a sovereign as King Theebau of Bur- 
mah could, as was stated, have connived at the sale or 
exportation of a white elephant. His throne, and proba- 
bly his life, would have fallen a sacrifice to the outraged 
adoration of the populace. This fact, and the facts that 
the Kings of Burmah and Siam seldom have more than 
one or two white elephants apiece during the same time, 
and are occasionally without any for five years together, 
cast additional improbability upon the stories of which 
we had such a surfeit in the newspapers. The kings of 
Burmah and Siam are too anxious to keep all the white 
elephants they can get, to part with one, at any price, and 
under any pretext. I would rather believe in the white- 
ness of a white lie and in the sacredness of perjury tlian 
in the combined whiteness and sacredness alleged of the 
elephant once added to what is rhetorically termed " the 
greatest show on earth." It would not have been more 
difficult to obtain King Theebau himself than one of his 
white elephants. 



THE END. 



BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 

Around and About South America: 

Twenty Months of Quest and Query. By 
Frank Vincent. With Maps, Plans, and Fifty- 
four full-page Illustrations. Third edition. 8vo, 
xxiv -j- 473 pages, ornamental cloth. Price, 15.00. 



CRITICAL ESTIMATES. 

" A new volume from Mr. Frank Vincent is always welcome, for the 
reading public have learned to regard him as one of the most intelligent 
and observant of travelers. ... A lively, readable, and pleasant record of 
unhackneyed, travel." — JS'ew York Tribune. 

" A capital book. . . . The author shows that he has the happy knack 
of telling exactly what we want to know, and, at the same time, he gives us 
those generalizations which permit the intelligent reader to arrive at certain 
conclusions. . . . His route shows how thorough were the traveler's re- 
searches, and how nothing which could satisfy ordinary curiosity was left 
undetermined." — A'ew York Times. 

" In every part of the continent he visited he was an intelligent and act- 
ive observer, gathering up and recording materials for a nearly exhaustive 
work."— TAe Sun (New York). 

" It is full of interest, and there is not a dull page in the whole book." — 
Journal of Commerce (New York). 

" It is an exceptionally brilliant and reliable book of travel. The work is 
beautifully illustrated, and has a number of excellent maps and diagrams." 
— New York Observer. 

" He not only shows unmistakable signs of the genius of the born trav- 
eler, but he also gives us information that is fresh and full of deep interest." 
— The Independent (New York). 

'' Mr. Frank Vincent is well established in reputation as one of the most 
practiced and agreeable of writers of books of travel." — Christian Union 
(New York). 

" He far surpasses any of his predecessors who have written of South 
America in the clear, comprehensive, and almost exhaustive view he affords 
of it as a whole ; and he has, in addition, made his account of his wander- 
ings fascinating by the spirit and the picturesquencss of his description." — 
Evening Gazette (Boston). 



AROUND AND ABOUT SOUTH AMERICA. 

" Every page not only gives unimpeachable evidence of personal expe- 
rience, but abounds with close and minute pictures of scenery, architecture, 
human groups and figures, and all the varied and animated life of a fascinat- 
ing continent. . . . That the book is thoroughly readable we need not say ; 
and in its authenticity and trustworthiness the reader may feel full confi- 
dence. ' ' — Literary World ( Boston) . 

"Mr. Vincent is the model traveler. He uses his eyes and ears to good 
purpose, generalizes with rare accuracy, and in his word-paintings never 
loses sight of the necessity of perspective if his work is to have value." — 
Boston Daily Traveler. 

" He has made the most informing book on the subject of the South 
American Continent that has ever been produced." — Evening Bulletin, 
(Philadelphia). 

" We can pin our faith to the descriptions in his ' Around and About 
South America,' which is one of the most delightfully realistic works of 
travel issued within the decade. . . . He finds so much to describe of living 
interest to the world that we might as well undertake to pick out the princi- 
pal plums in a barrel packed with them as to touch upon his best points." — 
Martha J. Lamb, in the Magazine of American History. 

" A valuable contribution to our knowledge of those countries, growing 
In importance and interest to us." — Hon. William M. Evaets. 

" It is really the only clear view of life in South America, as it is to-day, 
that I know of." — Hon. Ciiauncef M. Depew. 

" I doubt if so many facts were ever condensed into similar space in any 
book of travels. . . . Every library in the world will have to buy it." — 
Egbert C. Adams. 

" Mr. Vincent is acknowledged to be one of the most brilliant and ju- 
dicious of literary travelers." — Chicago Tribune. 

"Few living travelers have had a literary success equal to Mr. Vin- 
cent's." — HarperH Weekly. 

" Mr. Vincent has now seen all the most interesting parts of the world, 
having traveled, during a total period of eleven years, two hundred and 
sixty-five thousand miles. His personal knowledge of man and nature is 
probably as varied and complete as that of any person living."— Zfowe 
Journal (New York). 



D. APPLETON & CO., 

1, 3, & 5 Bond Street, New York. 



